


Where the Wild Things Are

by theisraelproject107



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Adventure, Alice in Wonderland-esque, M/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-30
Updated: 2015-07-30
Packaged: 2018-04-12 00:46:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 38,743
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4458878
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/theisraelproject107/pseuds/theisraelproject107
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>AkuRoku Day giftfic for Decorinne. After falling down a hole, meeting an enigmatic cat-boy, and struggling hard to stay, you know, *alive*, Axel's starting to get kind of fed up with this forest. Weird-ass oneshot in two parts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: My and Decorinne's imaginary bishie harem kind of says it all. Yeah, we own those gorgeous boys, have them locked away in the sweetest of sweet yaoi care… but… 'imaginary'… That damn word just keeps tripping us up whenever we try using it for collateral.
> 
> A/N: Take the title of one story? Check.  
> Take the premise of another? Double check!  
> Dedicate it with all my love to my favourite Decorinne ever? Totally done!  
> HAPPY AKUROKU DAY, SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE! Northern Hemisphere, hurry and catch up already ;)  
> This was written for one the best friends I'll ever have, of whom I think the absolute world. Initially, I started it because the lack of AkuRoku in Sink It In is causing her much anguish and pouting on Roxas' behalf, and I wanted to make her happy again (because, let's face it, they're not getting much action in any of my other stories, excluding the brief face-suckage of MaH)(HTPD totally doesn't count, either), but when it was pointed out to me that AkuRoku day was coming up as well… I figured, what the hell XD For that, I wholeheartedly, as promised, completely and utterly blame Nijuuni, for the last nine hellish days of trying to get it done on time ;)  
> Anyway - hope you all enjoy my pitiful attempt to write anything vaguely short.  
> And Saaaraaaaaah – come back soon :( And have fun ;) SO MUCH LOVE FOR YOU! /hugs/

**Where the Wild Things Are**

**Part One**

\--

It was ten-thirty at night, and Axel was firmly creeped out. He was pretty sure this wasn't how circuses were meant to be; at least, it was nothing like he remembered from the ones his dad had taken him to as a kid.

Those ones, he could recall the hot popcorn smell on the air, the way the lights had pierced the darkness so completely, made it a safe, fun, happy place. He remembered the cheery music, the distant grumbles and hoots of the performing animals and the petting zoo, the actors dressed up in costumes of varying flamboyancy, the fresh hay littering the grass of the town's broad football field. He remembered noise, and laughter.

This place, though – it was just…  _weird._ The clowns were one or the other of manic-depressive, their entire faces painted and arranged to echo that which they had chosen; the animals that Axel saw, as he wandered along with his brittle candy-floss, were sad, tired, empty-eyed and yowling. They shuffled lethargically in pens or cages, discoloured and thin. The term 'mercy killing' sprang to mind.

Strange, sourceless pools of shadow haunted corners, even when, feeling daring, Axel ducked down with his lighter and flicked a flame to life in their depths. That, more than anything else, gave him a jolt, made him shiver and draw back with a worried frown. The grass, mown almost to the dirt, crunched underfoot as he warily passed the cages of the performing beasts.

He'd heard about this circus, like most others that had turned up, from seeing the flyers around town. It had been a few years since anything like it had come their way, so the redhead had been eager. Now, however, being one of the last lingering visitors on the showgrounds despite the fact that the final performance had only ended twenty minutes earlier, he was more enthusiastic to just – get the hell out and go home. It was like someone had taken the 'scary clown' concept, beaten it bloody, and sent it on tour in search of souls. Creepy fuckin' stuff.

Just as the decision was made in his mind to split, go find a diner to have a hot meal in, in bright light and positive company, a cat emerged from under the lions' cage. It was a soft-looking, fluffy, cream-coloured thing, small. It had no collar that Axel could see, as he froze mid-step and watched it dart across his path. Noticing him at once, the little creature fixed him with a steady look, eyes unusually blue, Axel suddenly feeling as if something was trickling, cold, down the length of his spine.

Fighting off a shiver, the redhead glanced around, heard calliope music start up distantly, and turned his attention back to the feline, who maintained its gaze unbroken. Mouth twitching, Axel bent slowly, extending a cautious hand out towards the creature, still several feet out of reach. A great wariness fell across the cat, which drew its head back, ears flicking, one swivelling and flattening slightly, a paw lifting off the ground.

Making gentle kissing noises, Axel darted another quick look around the area, glad for the first time to be alone in the odd atmosphere. The cat glared suspiciously, the redhead softly saying, "Come on, kitten, come here. I won't hurt you." He stretched out a little further, and when the feline didn't flinch, he shuffled forward an awkward inch on his haunches. "Come here and let me pet you, okay, kitty? Here, kitty, kitty, kitty…"

Apparently at least partially convinced, the cat stretched its head forward, fur feathering as its neck extended, and rubbed its jaw against the redhead's outstretched fingers, a quick, affectionate move, a bump. A grin spreading across his features, Axel scratched at it a little before it pulled back. "Hey, cat, the name's Axel. You know a shortcut out of this weird-ass place, or what?"

Cold blue eyes regarded him for a moment, before the creamy creature twisted, placed a delicate paw down, and then, when Axel tried to pat it again, darted off several paces. Frowning, the redhead straightened a little, a hand in the dirt to steady himself as he called, "Hey, kitten – where you going?" He tried for a fruitless minute to coax it back, before sighing, pressing on his jeans-clad thighs and pushing up to his feet, dusting his hands off.

Surprised by a nudge at his shin, he looked down to see the cat had returned, was winding around his ankles. When green eyes met blue, it suddenly leapt away again, before pausing and looking back. Exasperated, Axel called, "Y'know, if you keep racing off, I can't take you home with me."

The cat meowed plaintively. Eyes rolling, Axel started towards it, hunched over and clicking his fingers to try and attract it. Instead, it did the opposite, and as soon as they were nearly level, it again ran away, a little further this time. When Axel hesitated, it gave another loud yowl, blue eyes piercing, and the redhead couldn't help but pursue. "Come  _here,_ you little furball," he muttered, frustrated as it once more darted out of reach.

They reached the edge of the circus grounds, situated in a disused farmer's field beside the forest that surrounded the town. The abruptly long grass rustled as the cat disappeared into its midst, a snaking trail of motion indicating its halting progress as Axel resignedly tried to keep up.

The artificial, glaring lights of the circus dwindled as he left it behind, the night sky blazing overhead, deep and broad. Green eyes rising automatically upward to view the heavens, Axel paused, a hand on one hip, drawing deep breaths and letting them out in faint puffs of steam. The stars winked back in a glittery spread, calming the agitation the circus had seeded within his chest.

From the edge of the woods, the white cat called to him in its high voice. Groaning lightly, the redhead located it by the shine of its eyes in the gloom. "Okay, I'm  _coming._ You've gotta stop sometime, though, you know that, right?" A meow of answer, and Axel followed it into the forest. He picked through the knotted foliage, the cat leaping lightly from place to place, always just a little way ahead, its pale fur seeming ethereal in the darkness. Panting now, hands clawing at the rough bark of the trees for support as he struggled through the brush, Axel demanded, "Will you just stop, stupid cat? I wanna take you home, but I am  _not_ going to hunt you down all night!"

The field faded into the distance as, despite the statement, he continued, muttering and cursing, sleeves snagging on outward-jutting branches, eyes adjusted to the dark by now but still struggling to see anything beyond the cat. It persistently remained teasingly ahead, periodically checking on his progress before silently slipping onwards.

Eventually, Axel reached his limit. Losing his temper sharply as a twig sliced the skin at the outer corner of one eye, he shouted,  _"Okay, look!_ I'm giving up, okay, cat?" He pulled himself over a log, shoes scrunching the dead forest floor on the other side. "I've had enough! I just came from the creepiest goddamn circus on the planet, and I'd like to go see a movie or something." He ducked under a heavy, low bough, palms gaining a layer of filth as he hung onto it to keep his balance. "I  _was_ going to take you home, maybe feed you a little milk and tuna, but hey, if you're gonna reject me, then the only one really missing out here is – " Axel stopped, the cat just inches away. "Oh! Hi." He bent slowly, tried to pet it, succeeded for once, its warm softness a pleasure against his fingertips. It nuzzled him with a wet nose, purring briefly, before slithering away, vanishing into nothing.

With a startled noise, Axel dropped to his knees, peered to where it had gone, and noticed the large, camouflaged rabbit burrow. "No!" he hissed, dismayed. "Damn it, kitty, come out of there! I can't – I can't – " He started trying to crawl after it, hands and knees shifting noisily through the leaves and dirt, squeezing first his head and then shoulders through the gap. "Holy shit, I can fit?" His voice took on a muffled quality, trapped by walls of earth. "Hell, I was just gonna try and yank you out by your tail… still –  _gonna…"_ He grunted, yanked his hips through and wormed blindly forward, breaths loud in the tightness. "Okay, cat! Getting kinda claustrophobic here… just a little… but, you know…" A stillness enveloped him the further in he went, total blackness. "And – a little  _more,"_ he muttered, the exit falling further and further behind as he, with less and less determination dragged his body through the close dirt passage, nails digging deep as the ceiling grew progressively lower.

A flash of cream tail ahead made him choke, yell,  _"Kitty!"_ and lunge forward with new zest, heart pounding, ready to snatch the creature and drag it howling out into the air.

Then, with a gasp, a frightened shout, the ground where Axel next placed his hand crumbled away. He dropped sharply, flailed, and slammed his back into the low roof. Struggling, scrabbling, more and more of the invisible edge broke away, leading him into a fast, hopeless slide.

At the last moment, feeling the earth vanish completely from under his knees, he tumbled, sank all the fingers of his right hand into the soil brink, clung for dear life.

His hold lasted all of two seconds, before becoming a handful of dirt to clutch as he plummeted hard and fast into some unknown abyss, the only noise he made a brief, strangled cry.

Then, for a while, there was nothing.

\--

Green eyes opened slowly. The first thing that registered within Axel's mind was that there should have been a hell of a lot of pain; he wasn't entirely sure why, just yet.

The second thing that registered was the fact that there  _was_ none.

He moved each limb in cautious experimentation, before lifting his head carefully, spitting a couple of flecks of dirt from the corner of his mouth. Frowning, dazed, he pushed up onto his knees and found himself sitting back in the forest. He remembered, now – the circus, the cat, the hunt and then the burrow – but the fall?

He glanced upward, saw leafy green foliage, the deep, cool shade of emerald that comes from the sun fighting to pierce a thick blanket of leaves. Here and there, small holes allowed concentrated beams to flood through and stab the green grass, lending the knolled area a peaceful ambience. But the last thing Axel had known, he was falling from  _underground –_ and last time he'd checked, rabbit warrens didn't contain leafy glades.

Unless – he'd tripped and hit his head last night, looking for the cat? Or simply exhausted himself enough to lie down and sleep, and have such vivid nightmares? Either way, it ended up coming back to the cat.

"Stupid cat," the redhead sighed, knowing that, by now, it would be long gone. He was stuck in the middle of the woods, with no clue which way to head towards civilisation, and not even a new pet for his troubles.

"Stupid?" a cool voice echoed. Head jumping up, Axel twisted, clambered to his feet quickly and looked around. There was – no one there?

Scowling, he spun in a tight circle, scanning the trees, searching. "Who said that? Hello?"

"Up here," the same voice advised mildly, Axel's neck just about cracking as his skull jerked back, wide eyes staring up into the boughs to find a boy perched high among them, dressed in black and white, watching him intently. "You thought the cat was stupid?"

Axel gaped, stuttered, wondered, "W-what are you doing up there? Who're you?"

Blue eyes narrowed, lips thinning out, and a moment later, the boy simply dropped out of the tree. Axel yelped as the spike-haired blond fell head-first to the ground. At the last moment, however, with the slightest twitch, the boy righted himself and landed silently on his feet, bending into the landing. Axel blinked at him, as he stayed crouched down on the ground, and suddenly noticed that he sported a pair of pointed, furry blond ears, and a long creamy tail.

"My name," the boy said coldly, "is Roxas."

"Roxas," Axel repeated uncertainly, trying not to draw away from the intensity in his gaze. "Hi. I'm… Axel."

"So you said," the blond agreed. He straightened slowly, Axel's eyes following him, before looking the redhead up and down in an unimpressed manner. "Are you telling me you didn't like the cat from the circus?"

Axel blinked. "No, I – I liked it. I wanted to take him home with me."

An eyebrow arching, expression smoothing out from its hardened state, Roxas seemed content with this answer. "I think, given the choice… that the cat would have happily accompanied you." He stepped close to Axel, right inside his personal bubble, and brought his face close. "Now that that's out of the way, let me explain to you the rules."

"R-rules?" Axel choked, the heat rising in his neck, creeping up his jaw. Somehow, he couldn't find the strength to pull away from the invasion, oddly ensnared by those large, piercing eyes.

"I will be your guide here, when I think you need it," the boy explained, breath fanning the redhead's mouth, a bare inch away. "And I will give you three chances, only three, to call on me to help you out of a difficult situation. It is up to you how you use them, but whenever you need saving, call to me and I will come – in exchange for one kiss."

Axel's eyes just about fell out of his head.  _"Kiss?_ Wh- _at?_ I don't –"

Roxas' gaze sharpened. "You don't know what a kiss is?" His tail flicked – it  _flicked,_ it was  _real,_ just like the soft look of his ears – and a moment later, the blond's hands placed themselves firmly on Axel's upper arms.

"W-wait, I –"

Axel was silenced, the cat-boy pressing his mouth firmly to his, soft but insistent. Eyebrows shooting high, he fought the urge to stagger back, different parts of his brain and anatomy screaming at him as the blond pressed his tongue into his mouth and  _kissed_ him.

The heat in his neck and jaw exploded, absorbing his chest, his face, making the tips of his fingers tingle. Roxas opened his mouth wider, gasping in a little breath, giving Axel's mouth one last brush before pulling back, eyes darker than before, leaving the redhead absolutely dazzled.

"That was a kiss," the blond told him. "I will require three of those," he held up the same amount of fingers in demonstration, "in return for three saves. Do you understand this rule?"

Axel stared, debated replying negatively to see if he got another demonstration, but ended up hesitantly nodding.

"Good," said Roxas softly. His hands fell from the redhead's shoulders. "Another rule is that you  _must_ speak to everyone you come across along the way. If you fail to obey this, you will incur a penalty." His expression briefly darkened. "Punishments from the King are nothing to dismiss, so tread carefully. Too many have gone before you and failed."

"…Right," Axel said. Then, "King?"

"A third rule," the boy continued, "is that you must consume  _nothing_ in this realm, or you will be trapped. Eat nothing, drink nothing, and at the end of the day, perhaps you… unlike I… will leave."

Axel grappled, tried to understand, failed, and demanded, "What exactly the hell is going on?"

Roxas regarded him dully. "You have been chosen by the King of Hearts. He wishes for an audience with you, to discuss the outside world. However, the way will not be entirely safe. There will be times where you need assistance."

Axel ran this through his mind, tried to find places to file the information that was being so sombrely related. "…Can I ask you something – Roxas?"

"…Yes," the blond allowed, his weary expression seeming to tell the redhead that he knew precisely what the question would be.

"Why do you have ears and a tail?"

Roxas stared for a moment, blankly. Then, just ever so faintly, the slightest flicker of a smile darted over his features. He stretched up and placed a quick kiss just beside Axel's mouth. "Perhaps I should want you to fail – maybe you would grow ears and a tail, too."

Axel's expression slackened. "Seriously?" He reached up to touch his head, as if expecting to spontaneously find extra appendages there.

Shaking his head with faint affection, Roxas said, "I'm here to aid you. If you require me, call my name… Otherwise, I suppose I will have to look forward to the pleasure of your company some other time, Axel…"

Frowning, the redhead opened his mouth to continue speaking – then choked as, right in front of his eyes, an enigmatic smile in place, Roxas vanished into thin air. The last remaining part of him was that upward curve of his lips, a final flash of blue irises, and then – nothing.

Axel was alone.

Lips parting, taking a step forward to where the blond should still have been standing, his hands cautiously grasped at the air. Nothing was there – Roxas was just  _gone._ "Whoa," the redhead whispered, green eyes wide, darting around. "What the hell did those crazy clowns slip into my candy floss, anyway?"

A cloud passed over the sun, the clearing growing cold, dim. A chill wind blew, making the redhead shiver and frown, arms folding over his chest.

"Hello, stranger," a low voice greeted from behind. With an exclamation, Axel whipped around, saw a silver-haired teen sitting on a log at the edge of the small glade, moss under his fingers, darkness pooling around him. "What - ?" He gave a yelp as, a second later, cool hands slid up the back of his neck, down his chest, rubbing against him.

"Hello, stranger," came the murmur into his ear, thick with smile. Wrenching away, Axel spun, blinked hard.

"Holy crap, there's two of you!" Head whipping back and forth, he ascertained the fact that, yes, there were two silver-haired boys in the clearing, both wearing identical smirks. They must have been twins; their looks were indistinguishable, except for the fact that the one on the log wore his hair slightly longer than the other.

The long-haired one over on the log stood, hopped up onto the wood, a burst of sunshine piercing through the clouds to illuminate him. "Indeed there are," he cried, arms throwing wide. He folded his hands behind his head as the other one sidled close again, circling the redhead tightly.

"We come as a set," the shorter-haired one said silkily, a hand trailing Axel's waist. The man uneasily knocked him away, stepping back. Glancing around quickly, he wondered again with fresh anxiety where the hell cat-boy Roxas had got to.

"Uh, that's great," he said, with a tight smile. "Real – uh, great, but you know, I actually have to get going. There was this guy here a second ago, and I'm not totally sure where he went, but I'd kinda like to find him, you know? So…"

"Don't go yet!" the one on the log exclaimed, sounding shocked. "You can't, you only just got here!"

"You have to stay," the other agreed stridently. "You can't just disappear!"

Holding his hands up, Axel laughed uncertainly, backing off towards the other side of the dell. "Yeah, right, sorry, but I've really gotta get going…"

"But you can't just  _leave,"_ the short-haired one snarled, stepping quickly into his path as he turned to go. "That's not how you do things! When you meet someone, you have to first introduce yourself! You've got it  _backwards!"_

"He's got a point, you know," called the other from behind him.

Axel closed his eyes for a moment. Roxas' voice whispered unbidden in his mind,  _You **must**  speak to everyone you come across along the way. _What kind of rule was  _that?_ Was that what these guys were talking about? He glanced around at the trees, smothering frustration. Where had the blond  _got_ to, damn it?

With a sigh, eyes settling resignedly on the short-haired one, Axel plastered on a thin smile. "Right. Of course – how rude of me. So, uh, how do we do this? You want me to introduce myself?"

"Yes!" bellowed the silver-haired male over on the log.

Lifting his shoulders in surrender, he said, "Okay, fine… My name is Axel. Aaaand – I'm a pyromaniac."

As he smiled at his joke, the two boys tilted their heads identically to the side, exchanged looks, and told him in unison, "Our name is Riku. And we're narcissistic."

Smile freezing, an eyebrow quirking, the man nodded slowly. "Ah. I see. Right. I can see a whole  _heap_ of imagination went into your guys' birth… Okay then, now that that's out of the way – goodbye?"

"No, no,  _no!"_ the shorter-haired Riku argued, stomping a foot. "No! You can't end it like that!"

"Hey, look, I really need to get going," the redhead replied sternly. "What the hell else do you want from me?"

Riku frowned, then brightened with an idea. "Will you play a game with us?"

"Oh, a game, yes," enthused the long-haired one, leaping down from his perch, hands falling to his sides and swinging exaggeratedly as he stalked near. Axel twisted, grimaced, reversed several steps. Reaching out their hands, the twins entwined fingers as they met, turned as one towards him and advanced with grins. "Play a game with us," the long-haired Riku insisted. "We have all sorts of things to play – we just  _know_ you'll enjoy them."

"Definitely," the other agreed, aqua eyes flashing.

"No, I  _really_ don't think so," the redhead answered nervously, not quite wanting to turn his back on them. "I'd really rather just go look for Roxas."

"Roxas!" the long-haired Riku echoed, brightening up. "We know him!"

Axel stopped, mid-step. "…You do?"

He couldn't explain what the pull was towards the blond, couldn't figure out why it was he wasn't just asking for the directions to town and hightailing it out of there… except that maybe logic just – dictated that cat-boys that vanished before your eyes had to be found again, to set things right. Remind them firmly of the laws of the universe, things like that.

Smirks broke out on the twins' faces. "We  _do."_ The long-haired one then affected disinterest, eyebrows rising as he said, "But you're in such a hurry, I'm sure you don't want to hear what we have to say about him…"

The teens released each other and turned their backs on Axel, as the redhead quickly panicked, argued, "No, if you know where I can find him, tell me! It'll be a lot quicker than me just poking around the place!"

"We never said we knew where to  _find_ him," the long-haired Riku sniffed over his shoulder.

Axel groaned.

"Although, we have a good idea," the other one mused.

The redhead sucked a breath through his nose, expression turning grim. "Okay, either you guys are going to tell me, or you're gonna keep jerking me around. So which is it?"

Glancing at one another for a brief moment, the pair nodded in unison, whirled around and swooped to each of Axel's arms. They wrapped themselves around the redhead, clutching him close. "Okay, then," the long-haired one breathed into his left ear, "we'll tell you what we can."

"Consider it a story," the short-haired one suggested, blowing teasingly into his right, eliciting a sharp shiver from the man. "A bedtime tale."

"Though perhaps," the Riku on the left grinned with a hard edge, teeth snapping at the redhead's earlobe, "not exactly suitable for pleasant dreams…"

Axel was frozen awkwardly in place, heart thumping, unsure of how to continue. The twins took the decision away from him, their voices turning mellifluous, hands beginning a slow, teasing journey over his chest.

"Once upon a time, there was a boy and his brother," long-haired Riku began, tickling the knuckles of his twin's hand, their fingers briefly snagging and pressing against his heart. Axel squirmed, sharp shoulders ignored by the tactile pair, who, undeterred, balanced themselves on the edge of molestation and kept it all above the belt. As long as their words continued, however, he somehow felt incapable of throwing them off; he had to hear about the blond.

"Was the boy Roxas?" he hedged. Short-haired Riku pouted, cut a fingernail into the redhead's collarbone, making him wince.

"Hush now," he reprimanded.

"The boy's name doesn't matter," left-hand Riku decreed with a toss of his shining mane. "In fact, the boy doesn't matter at  _all!"_

"It's his brother," the one on his right agreed.

"Yes," replied the other, solemn for a moment. "It's Sora that matters."

Both were silent for a moment, their roaming touches hesitating briefly. Then, with a frown, the short-haired Riku leaned in and bit Axel's ear sharply. "Now look what you've done, you've upset us with memories."

"B-but! You were supposed to be telling me about  _Roxas,"_ the redhead reminded him incredulously.

"Oh, him," the long-haired one snorted, unimpressed. "Fine. On with the story." He quickly lapped his tongue up Axel's face, then continued, "There were two boys, one like the moon, one like the sun."

"I thought  _we_ were the moon?" short-haired Riku wondered.

"We're the shore," came the impatient answer. "Sora is the sky, and the sky is shared into two, between the sun and the moon."

"And Sora is the sun."

"Sora is the sun," Riku confirmed, back to massaging Axel's chest, the redhead twitching unhappily.

"And Roxas is the – moon?" Axel guessed.

"Quiet!" Together, the twins left tongue-lashed teeth imprints on either side of his throat, making him cough, legs weakening. "The sun and moon are not important!"

"What's important is what they witnessed," short-haired Riku informed him sombrely.

"What they saw," the Riku on his left confirmed softly. "That's what matters. What they saw was what doomed their souls."

"Souls which can't be freed," the short-haired one murmured.

"Though we tried," Riku sighed. "We did, we tried."

They were quiet again, before, fingers tightening on Axel, they leaned across his chest and shared a chaste kiss. "Don't be sad," the short-haired one whispered.

"Don't be," the long-haired one mournfully returned. There was a beat of silence, before he added, "I'm feeling sad now."

The Riku on Axel's right straightened, rested his cheek on the tall redhead's shoulder, fingers brushing the base of his throat, making him swallow. "What matters is what the boy and his brother saw. They witnessed murder most foul, a school of oysters consumed right under their twin faces."

"The sun and moon could only watch," long-haired Riku grieved.

Struggling to understand, bewildered by their suddenly funereal attitudes, Axel surmised, "And this – doomed their souls?"

"Forever to the darkness," short-haired Riku nodded. "One remains up high, guarding the entrance to this bitter place…"

"Sora," long-haired Riku wailed.

"…while the other remains down here, deep, deep down, within the King's reach."

"…Roxas?" Axel uttered, flinching in anticipation of more teeth. But the boys just wearily nodded.

"Roxas stays here. But Roxas isn't what matters.  _Sora_ matters."

Shaking his head slowly, Axel asked, "Why does Sora matter more than Roxas?"

Hugging him now, resting his face more securely into the hollow of his neck, short-haired Riku said quietly, "Because we loved him. Riku loves Sora."

Brows drawing together, he glanced between them. "What – both of you?"

"There is only one Riku," the long-haired one growled. He reached out, took hold of the other Riku's chin and tugged him roughly forward, kissing him again, each of them letting out a small, soft moan that vibrated into Axel's flesh.

"Narcissism, huh?" he muttered. He let out an unsteady breath, eyes rising skyward. "…Look, uh, as hot as it might be to watch you two makin' out, I think I'd like to find Roxas now. Is story-time over, or what?"

They paused, eyes swivelling sideways to stare, mid-lip-lock. Mouths separating with a soft pop, long-haired Riku straightened, releasing Axel. Wiping his lips slowly with one wrist, he inspected the redhead closely, while his twin continued to hang off him. "You really want to find him that bad?"

A brow arching, green eyes rolled. "I thought that was why I agreed to stay at all?" he responded, elbowing the other Riku impatiently. Frowning for a long moment, the long-haired one seemed to consider.

"…I think Sora would be happy to know that an outsider was interested in finding Roxas…"

"But don't make things difficult for him, see?" the short-haired one murmured into his ear, a hint of threat lacing his words.

"We'll come after you if you do," the other one agreed darkly.

Axel shook the second Riku off, scowling and snapping his hands down his shirt to straighten it as he stepped out of reach. "I'm not intending to make things  _difficult._ I just want to find him."

"Why?" long-haired Riku asked, one eye squinting.

"What's your interest in him?" the short-haired one demanded, arms folding, chin lifting.

For once, Axel was stuck for an answer. He opened his mouth, a slight croak coming out, before clearing his throat. Confusion strong, he said, "I – don't know. I just really want to find him again. I was talking to him just before…"

"Oh?"

"Oh?"

"Interesting…"

"Then he's revealed himself to you…"

They looked at each other, then turned their teal-coloured eyes back to him and simultaneously jerked their thumbs over to the right. "Go that way. You'll find him."

"But if you come across anyone else, don't ask for him directly," the long-haired Riku warned. "You'll get him in trouble."

"Ask instead for the White Rabbit," short-haired Riku commanded.

"They'll direct you to where Roxas is if you do."

"The – White Rabbit?" Axel echoed, fighting to keep up. Together, the twins nodded.

"Don't dawdle," the short-haired one added, wagging a finger at him.

"And  _always_  ask for the 'White Rabbit'," the long-haired one reminded him strictly.

"…Right," the redhead said faintly, turning to peer in the direction they were pointing. "Right, okay…" He trotted off, giving them a last, hurried wave. "Thanks…?"

"You're welcome!" they chimed cheerily. As he disappeared through the trees, their smiles became smirks, eyes quickly meeting, hands joining, and, a heartbeat later, they melted back into the darkness from whence they'd come.

Breaths panting, Axel jogged, gaze darting about the forest, trying to keep some idea of direction in mind as he passed through the many trees. Come to think of it, the Riku twins hadn't told him how  _far_ this way he had to go… and exactly how trustworthy were they to begin with?

Either way, he resignedly realised, it was the best kind of info that he had right now.

So he continued onward. For an hour, he kept going, struggling to stick to some kind of straight path and not go veering off to the side. As lost as he already was, he didn't relish the thought of being even  _more_ lost. Lost while lost – kind of a bitchy irony.

Shoes crunching over leaves, twigs, and other woody detritus, the redhead followed helplessly the direction the twins had advised, and just hoped that something vaguely cat-boyish would turn up soon.

Gradually, he noticed the trees starting to thin. An eyebrow quirking, relief ready to start flowing through, he put on some speed. The sunlight grew stronger, more frequent, the grass becoming thicker, and he saw the forest ending just up ahead – civilisation? Had the freaky duo actually done him some good?

He broke free of the tree-line, and slowed to a halt, breathing hard. Forehead creasing, he pushed his hands through his hair. Well – it was  _sort_ of civilisation.

It was a house. A cottage, more like. It was sitting in the middle of a clear corner of the woods, looking like something out of a fairytale, with a thatched roof and whitewashed walls. As he cautiously approached, Axel could see a vegetable garden fenced off around to one side. Stopping as he felt something hard under one foot, he glanced down, saw that he was now officially walking on the remains of a little cobbled footpath.

Smirking a little at the white-picket-fence quality of it all, with a small shake of his head, he trotted up to the front door, raised a hand to knock – and just about smacked his knuckles into some guy's face as it swung open without warning.

"Whoa!" he exclaimed, stopping sharply mid-rap. "Hi! Sorry, I didn't – "

The guy, thin-faced, with an eye-patch and silver-streaked black hair drawn back into a ponytail, demanded, "Dude, you the maid? We can't find our gloves. Get in here!" Snatching Axel's sleeve, he jerked him inside before the redhead could form any protest, throwing him staggering down the short entrance hallway. Tilting his head back, the guy bellowed,  _"Lexaeus!_ Maid's here! Come tell her where you last saw your fuckin' gloves!"

"Dude!" Axel cried, bewildered, pressing a hand to the wall to keep his balance. "Check me out, I'm a  _guy,_ not a freaking girl! And I am  _not_ your maid, okay?"

"Shut the fuck up, Marianne." The guy brushed past him, pushing a finger under his eye-patch and scratching ferociously for a moment, before yelling again,  _"Lexaeus!"_

"I'm here," came a soft, deep voice, from right beside him, an enormous man standing there that seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.

Both Axel and the eye-patch guy jumped a little, before the guy turned and ordered, "Tell Marianne to find our gloves, we're gonna be late if we don't get our asses into gear."

The large man sent Axel a steady, appraising look, the redhead returning his gaze warily. "Hey, uh, can you tell this guy – "

Smoothly, he was cut off with, "Come right this way, please, Marianne."

Blinking, Axel helplessly demanded, "Did I spontaneously grow pigtails and a pretty pink bow, or what?" His shoulder was encased in a heavy, thick-knuckled hand, his steps steered forcefully over towards a petit set of stairs that looked like they'd splinter under the giant's weight.

"Up there," the man quietly informed him, "was the last place I saw our gloves. Would you please retrieve them for us?"

Axel stared at him for a long moment, features caught in consternation. "Uh… look, my name's not – Marianne, okay? I'm a guy. And I'm actually looking for someone, this guy I met earlier…"

"Our gloves are upstairs."

"Yeah, that's great, but I'm actually looking for – "

The enormous Lexaeus was shoved aside, replaced with the eye-patch guy screaming,  _"Get the fuck upstairs, bitch! I can't leave without my gloves!"_

He grabbed fistfuls of Axel's shirt and half-ran, half-dragged him up there, throwing him into the small loft with a resounding thump. The door was slammed abruptly after him, the stomp of boots returning down the stairs mingling with the guy's insane muttering.

For a long minute, Axel lay where he was, staring wildly at the ceiling.

What – the  _fuck –_ had just happened?

He pushed slowly up onto his hands, looking around dazedly. Below, he could still hear the ponytailed guy raving, punctuated by the faint murmurs of the giant. There was a crash of what sounded like crockery hitting the floor, and then more rumbling from Lexaeus.

Panting a little, shoulder throbbing from where he'd hit the ground, Axel glanced around the loft room, taking note of the bed, the cold fireplace, the wooden chest at the foot of the mattress and the small window that led nowhere but down. Climbing achingly to his feet, the redhead shuffled over to it, unlatching the small hook and swinging it carefully open, turning his gaze towards the ground.

"Hmm." Too far to jump, and a distinct lack of latticing and/or creeping plant to clamber down like the hero in a kid's mystery novel. With a sigh, he drew back in, pulled the window shut.

" _Marianne!"_

Cursing under his breath, Axel glared at the door, muffling the crazy-man's voice from downstairs. He was regretting ever approaching the damn house, and wondered if those bastard-creepy twins had known this was going to happen. On top of everything – no sign of Roxas.

So, he had two options – first: bolt down there and try and muscle his way past the crazy dude and his soft-spoken WWF accomplice, or, second: locate the goddamn gloves, throw them at them, and get the hell away as fast as possible.

He supposed the second choice was his best shot – he had all sorts of pretty visions of him trying to take on the giant with the same sort of success rate as a cheap car slamming at a hundred miles an hour into a brick wall. And the scrawny one was unpredictable as all hell – Axel didn't feel like trying his luck against him. God only knew what kind of weapon he was packing under that long black coat he'd been wearing.

Muttering under his breath, Axel began a quick search of the loft, pulling open the drawers beside the bed, checking underneath the mattress, before settling on the chest. Dropping to his knees in front of it, he struggled for a moment with the latch, hefted the lid with a rusty creak, and looked in curiously at the contents.

A collection of odds and ends met green eyes, his complexion paling a little at the sight of several guns placed carefully and lovingly along the bottom.

Good thing he ditched option one, then.

"Holy…" Axel took great care to not touch them. In fact, he'd have retreated completely from the chest at that point, snatched his hands to himself as if they were hovering in the jaws of a trap, if he hadn't seen the two pairs of black leather gloves tucked into the corner.

Hesitating, eyes returning to the guns with the kind of wariness one gives to sleeping Rottweilers, he reached down slowly, fingers touching the cold fabric, working them out from between the wooden wall of the trunk and a small, heavy, metal box. He pulled them up carefully, knuckles brushing the iciness of a muzzle, before both the gloves and his hands were free.

Feeling kind of like he'd run a marathon, Axel eased the trunk's lid shut again, wondering uneasily what kind of guys kept that many firearms just sitting around – and ordered unknown passersby to go venturing in around them. Snapping the faint wrinkles from the gloves, pulling them between his fingers nervously, he dithered for a moment, then opened the door cautiously and started back downstairs.

The little house had fallen quiet, the low sounds of broken porcelain being swept coming from the doorway to the miniature kitchen, while, in the main sitting area, the fuck-ass crazy eye-patch guy was sitting pushing some dried mushrooms around on a low coffee table. So intent was he on his task, he didn't notice the redhead hovering at the foot of the stairs, wondering which of them to approach.

Since he was being peaceful for the time being, Axel figured it'd be safe enough to go with the crazy dude, and approached guardedly. "So, uh – here are your gloves," he announced, reaching forward and dropping them carefully onto the corner of the coffee table. The guy popped one of the mushrooms in his mouth, chewed like he couldn't taste it, and swallowed. No other response. No acknowledgement.

Feeling nervous, Axel continued, "While we're here, I was just – wondering – um, have you ever heard of the, uh, White Rabbit? I'm looking for a guy… and I was told to ask for the White Rabbit…"

The eye-patch guy paused, frowned. He seemed to have heard this time, and Axel's words had obviously puzzled him. The redhead could just about hear the cogs grinding in his skull as he attempted to make sense of what had been said. "…ite Rabbit," he mumbled under his breath. "White…" Eye squinting at the wall, he asked, "White  _Rabbit?_ What the fuck are you  _on,_ ma…a-a…" He turned to look at the redhead, mouth dropping open, last word drawing out and stuttering to a halt. His gaze travelled slowly up the length of Axel's body, taking in every inch, until it reached his face, single pupil thin.

Axel was expecting some demand of where the fuck Marianne had got to – hurray at last for gender recognition – and so as a result had the bejesus completely and utterly terrified out of him when the guy's jaw dropped, he sucked in a breath, and suddenly started screaming piercingly.

Letting out a high yell of his own, Axel stumbled back several steps, as the guy leapt to his feet, pointed, and kept shrieking at the top of his lungs.  _"Giant! It's a giant! It's a fuckin' monster! LEXAEUUUS!"_

The massive man came running, looking around wildly for the danger, finding only the crazy guy scrabbling over the sofa, a boot scattering dried mushrooms over the floor, wailing and spitting about monsters, while the redhead was backing up as fast as he could go.

Axel turned desperately to Lexaeus, yelled,  _"What the shit, man?!_ He looked at me and went nuts!"

The man shoved past him, went to where the eye-patch guy was thrashing, and immobilised him by pinning him to the floor. His low, murmuring voice could be heard distinctly beneath the screams, and slowly, slowly the guy started calming down, starting gasping for air, little cries and whimpers escaping his raw throat. Axel heard snatches of panted words,  _"…Monster…_ giant…  _out of nowhere…"_

More mumbling from the enormous man – wasn't  _he_ supposed to be the giant in this equation? – and finally, the guy started nodding, tearfully saying, "Yeah – yeah, okay… okay…" He sniffed hard. "Yeah, that'll work."

Lexaeus straightened slowly, keeping a hand on him until he absolutely had to pull away, then turned calmly to Axel. With a heavy breath, he approached, his steps quiet, and said, "Marianne, I'm really sorry about this."

Shakily, Axel shook his head, stammered, "S-sure, whatever, I'll just get out of your –  _hey!"_ The hulking man wrapped an arm around his waist and neck, heaved him easily up off the floor and took him stomping up the stairs, thrown over his shoulder.  _"Let go of me, asshole!"_ The small staircase creaked under their combined weight. Axel was thrown back through the doorway into the loft a second later, a hell of a lot harder than he had been the first time, smacking his head against the bedpost and seeing stars.

As he struggled to regain himself, the door was closed, and a distinct, ominous click was heard. Blinking hard, Axel struggled to his knees, scrambled with a limp for the door, grabbed hold of the handle and started wrenching.

No good – he'd been locked in.

Pulling himself halfway up, one hand clutching the doorknob, he balled the other into a fist and pounded hard against the wood. "Hey, come on, let me out! I didn't  _do_ anything!  _God damn it!"_ He smashed harder, thundering and slamming for several intense seconds, before sagging, climbing to his feet, sore all over. With both hands, he rattled some more at the handle, then started looking around for something to bash it open with. His eyes fell immediately on the trunk at the foot of the bed – but hell, it was solid. He doubted he'd be able to lift it anytime soon, much less wield it as an effective ram on his own.

Growling in frustration, he reared back and kicked the door a couple times near the lock, trying to splinter it away from the frame. It remained depressingly immovable. Damn it, why wouldn't it work like it did in movies?

Lip curling as he considered, Axel drew back, breathing hard, narrow eyes inspecting the barrier for weaknesses. He took a breath, let it go slowly, hardened his muscles and ran at it, throwing his entire right side into the wood. He bounced off, yelling,  _"Fuck! Fuck, fuck, fuck!"_ Grabbing his right elbow, he swung in a broad, pained circle, collapsing onto the bed and letting loose a string of expletives into the soft comforter.

When he lifted his head, hissing through spit-slick lips, body throbbing sharply, he detected a hint of familiarity on the air. He paused, frowned, and attuned every sense to figuring out what felt so comfortable all of a sudden. It was like – every cell in his body had relaxed a notch. It was like a coffee drinker's first cup of the day, a smoker's first cigarette, a pyromaniac's first glorious whiff of toxic air…

… and why could Axel smell fire?

He pushed up, went suspiciously to the door, placing his face to the crack and inhaling deeply, the scent stronger now, more heady. It smelled – thick. Lips to the door, he yelled, "Hey!  _Hey!_ What's going on?" No response.  _"Is someone gonna let me out of here, or what?"_ There was a clattering downstairs, but no voices calling back, no steps coming his way.

Scowling, worrying, he drew back, hands on hips, and gave the room another sweep with his eyes. Sucking his bottom lip in between his teeth, he ventured over towards the window again, leaned close and looked down. It – it didn't look so bad when you were locked in, as opposed to just searching for gloves. As someone who was pretty sure he was free to leave whenever he felt like it, it was a sucky option, sure – but now?

Three metres wasn't such a huge drop, right? Axel was like six foot or something – it was like standing on his own shoulders, and then getting someone to jump from  _his_ shoulders… He could totally imagine doing that while drunk. He was pretty sure he might have actually already done it at some point in his life. So how was being sober going to make that much difference?

Well, aside from actually feeling the pain straight away.

The smoke smell grew stronger, and, on top of that, Axel could feel heat radiating up from below. Nervously, he shifted, gazed down between his sneakers at the floorboards, and wondered for the first time just how  _completely_ crazy those two guys were. Like – burning-down-their-house-with-the-giant-Marianne-inside insane, or just – imagining-monsters-and-girls-where-there-were-none insane?

It was becoming more and more likely, with the way the floor was starting to feel hot beneath his soles, the smoke was beginning to take on a choking quality, that those particular two belonged to the former.

" _Shit!"_ Frantically, Axel glanced around at everything he'd already seen, before deciding enough was enough and making a beeline for the trunk. He heaved the lid back on its hinges, took hold of it and wrestled the large chest onto its side with a crash of metal. The guns came spilling out, the few clothing items, and, beneath all that, a cascade of – candy? A veritable waterfall of candy hearts.

"What the fuck?" Axel murmured, bewildered enough to pluck one up and turn it over, taking note of the elaborate decoration around the edges. It was the prettiest damn candy heart he'd ever seen – the kind you paid a fortune for a box of on Valentine's day.

 _Eat Me,_ it invited, in flowery cursive writing. Axel blinked.

"I am – really glad I hate these things," he mumbled, dropping it back in amongst its contemporaries. It was so nice-looking, he almost wanted to try it just for the experience… but no. No – what had Roxas said?  _'…you must consume **nothing**  in this realm, or you will be trapped. Eat nothing, drink nothing, and at the end of the day, perhaps you… unlike I… will leave.'_

Well – Axel definitely intended on leaving.

Coughing, seeing a glow between the floorboards, realising that they really had  _set the place on fire,_ the redhead shook out the last few candy hearts and hefted the trunk up. It slipped precariously in his grip, awkward to hold onto, desperately heavy. Gathering a burst of momentum, he rocked back, focused on the door handle, then rushed forward and swung.

The chest crunched hard into the wood, splintering a broad hole while snapping the brass handle straight off, before dropping with foot-severing impact to the floor as he leapt back. With a triumphant grunt, Axel shoved the trunk out of the way with one sneaker, scratching the wood horribly, and wrenched the door the rest of the way open.

His happiness was short-lived – the cottage was up in flames. Hard fire, hungry and fast, black smoke billowing. Heat slammed into him, as he stood on the tip of the iceberg and gaped out in horror. He took a cautious step downwards, but the second his hand made contact with the banister, he snatched it back, skin seared. The entire bottom story was burning. As practiced as he was in the art of flames, the redhead had no choice but to admit defeat and retreat back into the loft.

"…Jesus," he stated incredulously. They were actually burning down the cottage, with him inside. Shaking his head angrily, he crossed over to his only remaining avenue of escape. Fuck pain – he'd had his fair share of burns in the past, but there was no way in  _hell_ he was going out this way. He'd always made it a point of pride to  _not_ be eaten alive by his fascination. Of course, there was no guarantee that the crazy guys weren't waiting for him outside with torches and pitchforks, but he was willing to take his chances.

Brushing his tender palms down his shirt, blowing on them lightly, licking each of them once, wetly, Axel unlatched the window again and swung it open. It wasn't wide, and it was a little round, but he'd punch holes in the goddamn wall if he had to.

He slipped one leg through, sat carefully on the frame, swung the other out and saw the sick upward spiral of dark smoke, the way it poured from the little wooden house. In the space of minutes, it had turned into a death-trap.

Hands gripping the sides of the sill, he glanced down anxiously. The vegetable patch was directly below, the small kitchen window that looked out upon it choosing that moment to shatter from the force of the flames, letting them come licking out and voraciously climb the wall towards Axel's feet. If ever fire had seemed like a live, murderous creation, it was  _now._

Sucking a deep breath, figuring this would be the only chance he got, the redhead gathered every ounce of strength in his limbs, coiled himself, briefly balanced on the thin bar of the windowsill, and launched as far from the dying house as possible.

The ground approached fast, slammed into him as he landed badly. Crumpling to the soil, he gasped for air, choked on dirt and smoke, felt the fierce hotness roaring out to meet him, sparks spitting dangerously. Dragging himself up, he staggered for the small fence, threw himself over it, and collapsed. Still far too close for comfort, he crawled for several minutes, until he could no longer feel his skin being baked, until the stench of belching smoke was replaced with that of sizzled hair.

He rolled over to watch the last of the little cottage be consumed, staring dazedly for a while, before noticing two black-clad figures standing at the start of its path, the shorter of the two jumping up and down and pumping his hands into the air.

Eyes popping wide, Axel dragged a breath into heat-abused lungs and climbed to his feet, stumbling off towards the safety of the trees, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be spotted before he got the chance to disappear.

He reached the woods intact, allowing them to swallow him up. Trunks sprang up thick and many, their bark dark, damp to touch, leaving smears on his hands as he pulled himself through their midst. He ran until the air cleared, until the flickers at his back had sunk into shadow, until he was sure, certain, completely positive that no crazy guys, eye-patched or otherwise, were going to leap out and attack him.

He slowed, stopped for a few minutes to cough out the last of the toxin from his lungs and suck in some clean breaths, clamping a hand on each knee and waiting, hunched over, for his heart to stop beating so scarily fast.

He'd dealt with some awesomely out-of-control flames before, and God only knew he'd seared himself time for time more often than he changed his underwear – but he'd never had someone try to burn him to death before. Never had someone go insane right in front of his eyes, and try to kill him. It was frightening, it was sick-inducing, it made him want nothing more than to just – find a way home. He needed a shower, and some proper sleep… He wished he could find that cat from last night and take it back to take care of it.

Heaving a sigh, Axel looked around to gauge his chances at ever achieving that star-flung aspiration, and realised he was more lost than ever. He didn't recognise  _anything_ about this place – it even looked like an entirely different section of forest. Everything was bigger, wilder, more overgrown. He didn't even know what the hell he was doing here in the first place.

" _God damn it_ Axel," he muttered through clenched teeth, picking a direction and resuming picking through the vegetation. "You just  _had_ to go after the kitty, didn't you? There you are – " He grunted as he was forced to climb over a low-hanging bough. " – standing in the middle of the creepiest circus in existence…" He panted as he ducked under a thick knot of climbing vine choking the self-same tree that the branch belonged to, slowly sucking it dry. "…and just when you're thinking it might be a good idea to _run away quickly,_ you instead – " He kicked his ankle quickly out of a snarl of thorns. " – go chasing after – " He sucked in a breath, dragged himself over a fat, fallen tree-trunk, only to find that it was rotten, breaking apart under his weight, letting light pierce through to a hidden nest of insects. Yelping loudly, he danced back several steps, stomping and shaking off the scuttling bugs, their little legs pricking at his skin, finishing with a bellow,  _" – a goddamn kitty!"_

"You seem to be experiencing some difficulty."

With a yell, Axel flailed and whipped around, fists jumping up and ready to take on whatever freak had crawled out of the woodwork  _this_ time. When he found no one, even as he spun quickly again, eyes wide and scouring the dark surroundings, he paused. Heart hammering in his ears, chest puffed with too much oxygen, the redhead hesitated, whispered, "Roxas?"

"Why so quiet?" murmured a voice in his ear. With a silent gasp, Axel twisted, leaping away, and found the blond sitting on a slender branch at hip-height. Brain grinding to a halt, the redhead shook his head slowly.

"You – weren't there a second ago," he informed him dubiously. Roxas smiled thinly, his hanging tail curling up into a vague question mark.

"Wasn't I?" he countered. "Or were you just too busy looking for someone that was going to hurt you?"

"I think I'd notice the cat-boy I've been  _looking_ for sitting on a branch that should be breaking under his  _weight,"_ Axel snapped back. "What the hell do you even weigh? What are you, an anorexic schoolgirl in disguise?"

Roxas stared at him for a long moment, one ear twitching a little to the left, as if listening to something distant, before asking, "You were looking for me?"

Axel blinked in confused wonder. "…Well,  _yeah,_ I was looking for you. You – you disappeared into  _thin air,_ Roxas. And just now, it's like you…" He threw his hands up into his hair, dragging his fingers along the many spikes and squeezing his eyes shut. "Damn it, all I want to do is get home! I'm so lost!" Helplessly, he dropped his hands back down, looked at Roxas and demanded, "You must know your way around, though, right? You found me here – you've gotta know what you're doing. Can't you, I don't know – point me in the right direction, at least? Can't you take me part of the way back towards civilisation?"

Roxas slowly started frowning, the more desperate Axel sounded. "Weren't you listening at all to what I told you earlier?" he asked disapprovingly when the redhead stopped for breath, hands resting on his knees as he balanced effortlessly on the branch. "You're not supposed to be going home – you were chosen to speak to the King." He sighed in response to the utterly blank look that came his way. "The entire reason I'm here for you is to help you  _through_ everything, Axel," he explained, an edge of irritation in his tone. "I'm  _quite_ sure I made that clear when we last spoke."

Scowling, Axel snapped, "Oh, you think so, do you? You're here to 'help' me, huh?" He stabbed a vicious finger back the way he'd come, voice echoing as he demanded, "So where the hell were you in all your 'appears-out-of-nowhere' fucking glory when I was just about burnt down to the ground inside some crazy asshole's summer cottage, huh?"

"I told you," Roxas replied sternly, tail lashing to match his mood, blue eyes narrowing. "You have to  _call_ for me. Only then can I help, for the price of a kiss."

Throwing his hands up, Axel cried, "Again with the kisses!" He shot the blond an unreadable look, lips pursing angrily, before determination seized his features. He stomped through the undergrowth, the last of the scurrying bugs, and said, "Alright,  _fine._ If you're so desperate for kisses, I'll  _kiss_ you, okay? But then you have to show me the way out!"

He was paused, mid-stalk, by the tip of a tail pressing surprisingly hard into the centre of his forehead. Eyes rising, he found his gaze locked directly with Roxas', some kind of humour shimmering beneath the surface of the almost cold look on the blond's expression. "I'm afraid that's not possible," the boy said softly, even as the fingers of one hand walked teasingly along Axel's collarbone. "Three kisses in exchange for three saves – this was the deal between us. If you were to squander one of your chances here, with nothing to be rescued from, I wouldn't be able to recompense you later on."

Blinking a couple of times, head pleasantly fuzzy, the redhead asked unsteadily, "Well – I mean, how likely is it that I'm going to need all three?"

Roxas laughed quietly, Axel smiling in automatic response. "I like you," the blond said fondly. Then he slapped Axel's cheek, a small gesture, but sharp. "If you're so desperate for kisses, I'll kiss you, okay?" he breathed, the same hand tickling the side of the redhead's jaw as he lowered towards his ear. "But first… you have to need my help." He drew back slowly, dragging the soft tips of his fingers along Axel's chin before letting them drop. "And in order to gain my help, you have to call for me." He reached down and took hold of Axel's hands, lifting them and gently placing them over the redhead's green eyes. "So just remember that, the next time you need me in all my… 'appears-out-of-nowhere fucking glory, when some crazy asshole is trying to burn you down inside his summer cottage'…" In a low whisper, he added, "The King is waiting for you. Don't… test his patience."

When the pressure slid away from his wrists, Axel slowly dropped his hands, opened his eyes, only to find himself gazing into empty, dark air. Once again – Roxas was gone. Only the faintest echo of his words remained, locked within Axel's skull –

_Don't… test his patience._

"The King?" the redhead murmured, reaching up to slowly scratch a leaf out of his hair. His gaze darted around half-heartedly for the cat-eared blond, already resignedly convinced he wasn't going to be conveniently within view. "…Since when is there a King around this place, anyway?"

He drew in a breath, noted the slight shakiness of it, leftover from the cryptic blond's close proximity. There was something about Roxas' scent, the way he  _breathed_ on Axel, that completely and uselessly shook the redhead up.

"Okay, so…" he mumbled, eyes scanning the trees. He waited for a blank minute, then complained, "Awwww,  _fuck!"_ Hands on hips, he called up to the treetops, "So how the hell am I meant to get  _home?"_

An answer, there came none.

Muttering and bitching under his breath, Axel got moving again, pushing through the thick, tangled foliage on every side. "Meant to find the  _King,_ but I don't even  _know_ any Kings – what the hell are we, some kind of monarchy? And Roxas is  _gone,_ and I don't know where I  _am…"_ He broke abruptly through into a clearing, staggering to a halt, little scratches all along his bare forearms and knuckles. Panting, he straightened, picking the leaves and twigs from his clothing, sneakers scraping through the thin carpet of leaves over dark dirt. Light was sparse in this part of the forest, making him think that maybe, with exiting the place being his firm objective, he'd kind of chosen the wrong direction.

Everything here was…  _tall._ The trees towered insanely high, gigantic wooden skyscrapers, the lowest of their boughs beginning at about the twenty-meter mark, way above Axel's head. The flowers bobbed at six feet, shoulder-height grass running along either side of the narrow strip of winding, barren earth, easily overshadowing him. He felt diminished all of a sudden, like a bug, an ant among giants. Even the hugely-statured Lexaeus would have seemed little more than a speck in this place.

On top of that, a curious hush had descended upon the woods. Where previously Axel had always been able to hear the birds twittering, the hidden creatures rustling, the unnerving slither of small snakes as he stomped near their basking places, here… there was only silence. The air was still. What light filtered through the leafy canopy way, way overhead was dim, glowing in small pools. Nothing moved, not even faintly. The greatest amount of disruption in this static environment was that caused by Axel himself –  _he_ was the noise, the motion, the chaos in tranquillity.

It was the most unnerving, and possibly most beautiful, place he'd ever been. It was a pocket of utter nature.

Forcing himself to move after long minutes of staring, Axel slowly followed the haphazard trail the clear earth had created, no doubt used by numerous small quadrupeds. He was the only clumsily two-legged creature to ever crush its leaf-strewn soil underfoot, feeling like an interloper. Each breath he drew was cold, dry. The only scent in his nose was of heavy, rich earth, tinged with ozone, as if a storm had been and gone.

Slowly, the grass gave way to more and more flowers, their numbers growing steadily, their heads higher and prouder, colours vivid and bright. Vines wound themselves thickly around their stems, but somehow they thrived as powerfully as ever, Axel turning in an unhurried, awed circle, wide eyes taking in as much of the rare and gorgeous sight as he could.

Various sweet aromas started threading the air, perfumes of dozens of different breeds mingling and stirring to create an almost intoxicating amalgamation. It was heady, it was some kind of naturalist's perfection, and it was ultimately serving to give Axel a slight headache, but he didn't really care. It was worth it to be able to tattoo this on his memory.

To one side of the path, he heard a rustling, the first sign of any life in the area, bringing him gradually back to his senses. His step, which had slowed to a shuffle as he gaped at his surroundings, picked up reluctantly, the sharp crackling crunch as he crushed various twigs under his sneakers returning to pierce the hush. Though his gaze remained on the high, immobile heads of the flowers, his pace returned to something near to normal, taking him deeper into their midst.

A loud, elongated shiver of underbrush caught his attention with a frown, coming from behind. He twisted, continuing but walking backwards for several steps, seeking out the source of the noise, hoping to God it wasn't some kind of killer python writhing close. Sure, pythons didn't tend to frequent your regular run-of-the-mill forestation – but then, 'regular' wasn't exactly the word on the tip of his tongue when he looked at this place.

Nothing to be seen. Grunting softly, Axel hesitated, then started to turn back, shoelaces dragging in the dirt, when something thick caught his toe and tripped him.

Falling to the ground with a heavy thump, incapable of catching himself in time, the breath was slammed from his chest. For a long moment, he lay still, before grimacing, levering up onto his hands, looking down at the smeared mess his shirt had become. He glanced back over his shoulder at the thick vine lying across the otherwise clear trail. "The one time I'm not looking," he mumbled, eyes slipping shut as his already abused body found new bruises to pulse over. His head dropped, hanging between his elbows, an inch off the ground. "Son-of-a-bitch."

Over to the right, deeper in, a sharp, fast crackling came, like something heavy dragging along the ground. Axel's head popped back up, a frown tugging at his features, the faintest shine of fear in his eyes.

So far, the most dangerous animals he'd encountered had been of the human variety – but that didn't mean there wasn't something more four-legged waiting to have a go at him. Weren't there meant to be – like, cougars or something living out here? He seemed to remember animal control rounding up  _some_ form of bitey-scratchy creature several summers ago, when a couple of them had come down from the hills to drink out of people's swimming pools. Woe to his crappy memory for refusing to reveal exactly  _what_ kind of bitey-scratchy it had been. He just hoped he wasn't about to find out the hard way.

Picking himself up slowly, absently brushing his elbows off, Axel cast a wary eye upon the forest, taking a few cautious steps along the path. He looked down at it, pausing as he considered that perhaps the trail had been  _formed_ by whatever creature was out lurking.

Another swift noise, this time to the left.

Make that, creature _s,_ plural.

"Oh, Christ," the redhead muttered, picking up the pace, wondering helplessly if running would help or hinder him in this happenstance – would it provoke a hunt? Was he better off just finding the nearest ginormous tree to try and throw himself up?  _What the hell was he supposed to do?_

He thought of Roxas, thought of the blond, cat-eared boy telling him he need only call out to him for a save – but what exactly the hell did that really mean? How could Roxas just  _save_ him? What, was he following Axel around? Was he sitting in a nearby tree dispassionately watching, seeing danger coming and refusing to move until Axel cried his name?

What the hell kind of kink was  _that?_

Huffing, gritting his teeth against the fear, Axel sped up a notch, kept up a stable semi-jog, ready to burst into a sprint at any moment. Behind him, off from the path, another loud noise, like a slithering, and great, the python was back in his head. His imagination couldn't decide which was more likely to kill him – snakes or cougars. Both were equally fun to dwell upon.

Hands forming fists, he steadily, with forced calm, hurried along the trail, eyes darting anxiously for a break in the thick foliage, one leading to thinner patches of trees, hopefully away from whatever lair he might have stumbled upon. The rustling grew louder, more constant, bolder. It was getting closer – whatever it was,  _they,_ whatever _they_ were, they were approaching, zeroing in on him with intent.

Finally, as the bushes on either side of the trail began shaking, the creatures just about on top of him, Axel broke and ran. Head lowering, forearms stiff, legs lengthening, he bolted away, didn't look back as he heard the foliage erupt behind him.

Throughout it all, the only sounds were the throbbing in his skull and the hideous slithering rustling – there were no animalistic snarls or grunts or gasps, nothing to suggest that whatever was hunting him was going to tear him to shreds, and somehow, this only made things a little bit more awful.

Sneakers pounding the earth, shoelaces bouncing and dragging, he sprinted along the narrow trail, the enormous flowers watching him go from their lofty positions, their demeanour heavy, judgemental, no longer as beautiful as they had first seemed.

The most depressing thing Axel thought he'd ever encountered was the moment he broke through into a slightly wider area, saw the trail begin again on the other side of it, noticed the way the plant-growth was at its thickest yet, and realised he had only just, just,  _just_ reached the centre of it all. Was this the middle of the entire fucking  _forest?_

Before he had a chance to continue, and plunge back onto the other side of the trail, the sides of the clearing shook chaotically, the endless sheet of flowers splitting apart, giving way to a series of aggressive, focused, predatory green snakes, a  _wave_ of them, everywhere, all around. They flowed to him before he even had a chance to yell, threaded swiftly around his legs, crawled up his thighs and encased his hips. From there, they lunged upward, moving with an alacrity no snake should ever have possessed, twisting alarmingly, ensnared his wrists, ripped them down to be pinned against his sides as they swarmed ever up his body.

Struggling by now, thrashing uselessly, Axel staggered under their combined weight, letting out a disbelieving cry at their incredible length, the fact that, even now, their bodies still stretched back into the thick of the flowers. They wrapped higher, one touching his neck, slithering around it, and for the first time, it occurred to him that – this wasn't what snakes felt like. He'd been to snake-handling demonstrations where the people at the reptile-petting zoo let you reach out and touch the serpent – they were cold, and smooth. These things – sure, they weren't warm, but they didn't have that deliberate chill, either, and – and they were sort of rough, and, and there were  _leaves_ coming out of them, and…

And – and they were vines.

Axel fell to his knees, no longer able to support himself, then toppled over onto his side. He struggled and strained, gasping hard as the vines slithered tighter around his chest, clamped his limbs together, tied themselves up around his throat and started spreading rapidly across his face. He tasted dirt, spat it out, bit down on one as it experimentally entered his mouth, choked and tore it apart. More replaced it within seconds, pressing against his lips, slicing past without care, their leaves and miniature protrusions slicing into the soft, puffy flesh.

Drawing in as deep a breath as his fast constricting lungs would allow, he burst it out in a wildly screamed,  _"Roxas!"_

The world went dark, it went airless, the pressure all over his body increasing, around his skull, sealing his lips and nose shut. He was trapped, and he was smothering, and he couldn't feel his legs. Everything was getting tighter; he could feel his ribs rubbing, could feel a terrible pain developing fast in his sternum, could feel the bones of his fingers grinding together, the blood everywhere being steadily cut off.

This was all… real.

Perhaps this was the first time it occurred to Axel; none of this was a fantasy. None of this was something he could brazen his way out of. The presence of a boy with a tail and ears didn't make it so that he was untouchable. This was  _happening._

A little late in the game to start taking things seriously.

Axel was fading quickly. The pain was growing extreme. The pressure on his eyes was phenomenal. It wasn't fair that his last mental image was of himself as a stubborn tube of toothpaste about to be popped open. Nope. Not fair. It was a  _shit_ final thought.

And then… oh, blessedly, there was light, and air, and from one split-second to the next, he went from crushing doom to flopping apart, limbs dropping to the earth, chest a study in piercing excruciation. The gripping vines fell apart from the centre, littering the ground around him, lifeless again. He inhaled hard, coughed harshly, and groaned, rolling onto his side, bringing his numb hands up towards his throat, elbows tucked in against his stomach.

He rocked a little, choking against the pain, trying to breathe despite it, blinking blindly down at the dirt. A gentle touch at his cheek stilled him, made his gaze swivel upward, vision filled with a worried face hovering over his, careful fingers pushing the hair from his eyes. With blood trickling from the corner of his mouth, Axel dazedly muttered, "Do I give you your kiss now?"

Roxas wiped the blood away, drawing back with a smeared hand. In the other, he held a key-shaped instrument, like a sword. Leaning down, placing a soothing, dry peck on the redhead's forehead, he softly responded, "Not yet."

Giving Axel a small smile, he patted his cheek, then stood, tail snaking back and forth. Raising his head, eyes narrow, he inspected the high flowers, as the dozens of vines slowly crept back into the shadows. A scowl in place, he commanded, voice echoing, "Marluxia! Come out!"

There was a long silence, broken only by Axel's struggled gasps on the ground, Roxas' sharp eyes never ceasing in their roaming. He turned in a circle, suspiciously scouring the surrounding vegetation, before pausing. He stopped breathing, attuned his hearing, right ear giving one small flicker of warning before a burst of light erupted out from his free hand, hardening into another weapon. They were swung before the second one was even fully formed, lashing out to the side and slamming away the enormous scythe that had come spinning out of the darkness.

There was a sharp clang, a thud as it hit the dirt and bounced into the bushes on the other side of the clearing, and then a smooth voice admonishing, "Roxas! Is that any way to treat a superior?"

Roxas twisted, expression flat, hands tight around his blades as the pink-haired man came sliding out of the shadowy depths of the massive garden. A slight, displeased scowl in place, Marluxia approached, the hood of his black coat bouncing at his shoulders. "Why have you interfered? I'm only doing as I was charged to do by our leader," he reminded the blond, "which is to remove any and all  _weeds_ from our midst." Sneering, he looked down at the redhead, who was attempting to sit, a hand massaging frantically at his chest. "And now look what you've done," he added with scathing regret, "you made me let one live."

"This one's mine," the blond said dangerously. Marluxia's gaze sharpened, interest piquing suddenly.

"I beg your pardon? Care to repeat that?" When Roxas said nothing, the man's brows rose slowly. "You dare to contradict my  _duty?"_ Shaking his head slowly, Marluxia tutted. "This won't do. Not at all, young man, not at  _all."_ He paused, thought for a moment, then curled his lip distastefully. "Oh, don't tell me – you're not trying to  _save_ him, are you?" As Roxas' glare intensified, Marluxia looked briefly startled, then let out a delighted laugh. Momentarily forgetting his earlier purpose, the man clapped his hands, exclaiming, "I can hardly believe it! You, the ice-cold cat, caring whether a  _human_  lives or dies? How many that have come before him did you all but lead into the swamps of Tulgey Wood, dear Roxas?" Arms folding, a hard light entering his gaze, he leaned forward, asking with a silken edge, "Or is that what you're planning for this one, too?"

He raised a boot and shoved Axel, sending the redhead back down with a loud groan. Roxas snarled, knuckles white, but made no move to stop him.

Shooting the blond an unimpressed look, Marluxia grunted, apparently losing interest in the discussion. "Huh. Well, whatever you  _do_ decide, just remember –  _you're_  not allowed to keep killing them off, you know. If you end up letting another one drown in the swamps, the Superior will be dreadfully unhappy with you. You never do it  _right,_ they end up just dying and  _staying_ dead."

"Oh, yes," Roxas muttered venomously, "Heavens forbid that the man should die before the King has a chance to personally remove his head and steal his  _soul."_

Marluxia sent over a cold smile, head tilting to the side. "Carefully, carefully," he sang liltingly, "never breathe a word of treason." From the forest, more vines came crawling, slithering around the man's boots, cinching at his ankles, wrapping into a harness and lifting him. Several snaked out from the other side of the clearing, dragging his scythe, curling up into the general mass and reuniting the weapon with its owner.

"The trees whisper to one another, you know," he warned darkly, as they drew him back into their midst, fading from the light. Moments later, he was gone from sight, and not long after that, silence returned to the woods.

Axel wheezed in a breath, croaked, "Roxas?" He had managed to rise to his knees, elbows in the dirt, spitting little bits of leaf and blood. His forehead was pressed to the side of one arm, face contorted as, every time he tried to straighten, the pain in his chest pulled hard. The blond, when he managed to lift his head, was sitting crouched on the ground two feet away, watching him intently, weapons gone. He struggled to smile, a gory sort of sight with the two larger cuts congealing. "So, you really did come." Gasping a little as he tried to push up, lowering back down and pressing the heel of his palm hard into the site of the pain, he panted, "And – that stuff he said about… about you leading people into swamps…?"

Roxas grimaced. "You weren't supposed to hear that."

Axel laughed weakly, a harsh sound. "Sorry. Forgot… to turn off my ears." Lips pulling back, he jammed his fist hard into his chest, twisting it, trying to physically  _shove_ the pressure away. "Ah,  _jeeze."_

"I won't lead you into danger," the blond said solemnly. When Axel glanced up, squinting sceptically, he added, "I gave you my word."

Shaking his head, Axel eased up onto his knees, teeth grating at the awful tug, ramming his knuckles deeper into his sternum, rolling them harder. Roxas watched with a frown, asked, "What are you doing?"

"I – I just gotta…" The redhead grimaced, tried to suck a full breath and couldn't, lowered his chin and punched his breastbone, massaged at a slightly different angle. "I felt it," he grunted. "When I was being squeezed…" He drilled his fist in for a severe moment, expression tugged with flashes of agony, before a sudden, sharp click was felt, seeming to reverberate through his entire body. The pain vanished instantly, Axel dragging in a lungful of fresh air and coughing it back out, shoulders relaxing, whole posture loosening.

Slumping, he closed his eyes, flopped on his back into the dirt, spreading his arms wide and luxuriated in the sudden silence of his body. "Gotcha," he murmured. He drew a breath, let it out easily, feeling like he'd been run through a wood-chipper. Waiting for his pulse to slow back to its proper speed, for the lesser aches and pains to lunge up with new ferocity, he softly said, "I just wanna go home. I don't know where I am. I don't know who you are. I don't know what you even  _want_ from me, all this talk of a 'King'." He covered his face with his hands, let out a thin moan of exhaustion. "Wish I had just grabbed that dumb cat at the circus and not let it go, instead of following it all the way out like that…"

Roxas made a noise of irritation. "Still talking about the cat? Every time I hear you, you're mentioning it."

"Yeah, well – I wanted it," the redhead snapped, dropping his hands to the sides. "Hell,  _you're_ the one with freaking cat features, I'd have thought you'd find it endearing!"

Roxas sighed and shook his head. "You really are short-sighted, aren't you?"

"Yeah, fuck you, too, cat-boy," Axel muttered, flipping him off with one hand, covering the top half of his face with both arms. There was a pause, before the blond tutted.

"Is that any way to thank me for saving your life?"

Axel froze for a moment, then, before he even had a chance to pull his arms away, a soft pair of lips was touching his own. Roxas' hands gently took hold of the sides of his face, the blond straddling his chest comfortably, Axel glad, for the duration of remaining thought, that he'd managed to fix things physically before anyone went and tried to _sit_  on him.

Then, his mind shut down.

He tilted his head back slightly, pressing into the stinging, coppery kiss, mouth opening willingly to the tongue that came questing. Arms shifting upward, he scratched lightly at the base of Roxas' neck, before pushing one hand down the back of his shirt, pressing it flat against the hot skin. The other cupped the blond's head, pulling him deeper, breaths puffing through noses as their tongues played and danced together.

Roxas, in response to this, hunched his shoulders, snaking his arms under the crimson spikes splaying across the earth, shivering as Axel scraped a fingernail between his shoulder-blades. Their mouths broke apart as he inhaled shakily, lips swollen, cheeks flushed, but when Axel went in to re-engage, Roxas turned his face quickly to the side.

"No lips," he breathed, panting slightly. "It'll count as a second time, a – a second save."

Underneath him, Axel paused, fingers still scratching lightly at his warm skin, thumb drawing a faint pattern through his hair. Then he smirked. "No  _lips,"_ he pointed out. He proceeded to kiss and nip his way along the blond's jaw, Roxas' eyelids fluttering shut. "I want to make sure I thank you properly," the redhead muttered smugly. He licked the lobe of Roxas' right ear, nibbled at it. He exhaled a hot, gentle breath along his cheekbone. "And I don't exactly hear you complaining."

The blond shuddered, pulled away a little and shook his head as if to clear it, pouting cutely. "You're not supposed to do things like that," he muttered. "You'll… delay me. Delay  _us."_

"But, what am I meant to do now?" Axel asked, curiously touching one blond cat's ear, scratching its base lightly. Roxas curled down into the gesture, shivered sharply with a loud rumble that could almost have been a purr.

"Now, we finish up here, and you continue on your way," he informed him lazily, obviously enjoying the sensation. Axel stared at him for a long moment, before scowling.

A moment later, Roxas found himself thudding onto his tail in the dirt, as Axel abruptly stood, brushing himself off, trying to regain some sense of composure.

"So, that's it, is it?" he demanded between his teeth. "I've come away from two, count 'em  _two,_ life-threatening situations, and you – " He whirled on Roxas, the blond climbing cautiously to his feet. "You! You want me to  _'continue'?"_ Glaring, the redhead swiped his hands through the air in a sharp, final motion. "Forget it, buddy. I'm done, okay? Finished. Whatever the hell is up with you guys and your King, you can just keep it to yourselves, alright? Because  _I –_ am going elsewhere." He turned his back on the blond, threw a casual hand into the air, said with loud casualness, "Maybe I'll see you around sometime, cat-boy. I'm heading home."

There was a laugh from the blond. "Oh? I can't wait to see how far you get."

Anger flaring, Axel spun to confront him – only to find himself utterly alone. The clearing was, right on schedule, completely empty of anyone but  _him._

"Just remember to call me when you're needing," Roxas added carelessly, a warm murmur in his ear, hands massaging his shoulders briefly. Whipping around, Axel found only air. He twisted in a circle, good sense refusing to let him believe that the blond was just passing in and out of reality at will.

" _Damn it!"_ he yelled to the emptiness. "Would you quit  _doing_ that? You're killing everything Physics ever  _taught_ me!"

Nothing further was heard from Roxas, from wherever the hell he was lurking, in whichever dimension. For crying out loud – crazy people, vines that attacked and throttled, pink-haired guys spouting creepy warnings that weren't even intended for him, yet were completely  _about_ him, and, to top it off, a King he'd never heard of and a cat-guy that could disappear and reappear whenever he felt like it. The fact that Axel had survived his latest bad encounter didn't mean that he could just forget the epiphany that had occurred as he was being crushed, the one where he realised, oh, that's right,  _that all of this was real._

For the first time, he considered the possibility that last night had actually happened as he remembered it – had he really followed the kitty into the rabbit's hole, only to fall down into some – deep, black hole? But then… how did that explain…?

Axel's eyes rose slowly towards the sky, sneakers scuffing quietly through the leaves as he turned, seeking out the sparkling spots of daylight that filtered through. He was – definitely outdoors. There was no doubt about that. But – it was feeling less and less likely that he was going to just stumble on out of these woods and head for home. It seemed like no matter where he went, he only found himself delving deeper into unknown territory, meeting someone new that he was really better off never knowing at all.

Damn Roxas for sounding so smug.  _I can't wait to see how far you get._

Axel grumbled, "Yeah, let's see how far  _you_ get, the next time you're wanting my kisses. Goddamn – extortionist  _perv."_ He huffed, glaring around at the loneliness, hoping that wherever the blond was invisibly standing, he'd cop a blast of it. Of course, knowing Axel's current luck, Roxas was probably off in the Caribbean, completely deaf to anything but his  _name_ being shrieked at hysterical volumes.

With nothing better to do, Axel helplessly gazed over at the other half of the trail, drew a breath and resumed walking. He didn't know where he was going, but he couldn't exactly stay put, either. This was going to be one of those situations where staying in one place was only going to make it easy for the  _psychopaths_ to find him, never mind Search and Rescue. Them, and their pet plants.

Picking through the rough foliage, the neatness of the path vanishing steadily the further from the epicentre of it he got, Axel carefully started taking stock of his various injuries. Tongue playing incessantly with the deeper of the cuts on his bottom lip, he ran a mental inventory, taking into account just how much each body part was throbbing, and estimating how many millions of dollars of bath-salts it was going to take to make it all go away.

Though the flowers gradually thinned out on either side of him, the section of forest through which Axel ventured was obviously just that much older than that which he'd started out in, the trees continuing to tower, the vegetation large and densely packed. The overhead canopy grew tighter, light lessening, as the soil underfoot became heavier, damper, more richly scented. Fungi started springing up all over the place, some violently coloured, others more reminiscent of pared knuckles scattered across the ground. The further he walked, the more frequent they became, until he couldn't walk past a tree that didn't have its base encrusted, couldn't take three steps without ending up bumping into one of the increasingly larger toadstools or wild mushrooms growing at hip-height from the nutritious forest floor.

Sneakers sinking into the sagging earth, crushing many a rotting fungus underfoot, clothing and skin smeared, Axel wearily trudged on. It was his own little version of Hell, this place, he'd decided – he couldn't stop, for fear of something or someone jumping out of the shadows to get him; but, on the other hand, he just – didn't know where he was going. Roxas hadn't even appeared again to point him in the right direction… flying blind was really, really sucking. He was so tired, and sore, and wishing he'd eaten one of the skanky-looking hotdogs at the circus instead of the candy floss.

When he detected smoke on the air, after a couple of hours of useless travelling, Axel stopped cold, one blackened palm resting upon the bark of a tree. He held himself steady against it as his foot hovered above the ground, ceasing all motion, all distraction, all breath.

Eyes widening, he dedicated every part of his being to the aural and olfactory senses, hunting the air for signs of life – crazy eye-patched or otherwise. For some _unfathomable_  reason, Axel now automatically equated the scent of smoke as a sign that someone was going to try to  _burn him the fuck to death._

The raucous, distant burst of laughter he heard a moment later did nothing to assuage this fear. In fact, the instinct arose in him to just get the heck away as fast as was humanly possible.

He twisted, started to act on this, when Roxas' second rule again sprang horribly unwelcome to mind. The last time he'd remembered that he was supposed to talk to everyone he came across was when he'd promptly been mistaken for a girl, and entered the fun spiral from which he was still trying to figure out a method to claw his way out of.

But then – Roxas had also said, if he didn't obey the rule, he'd incur a…  _'penalty'._ Considering just how hideous regular life had been so far, did he really want to know what could be as traumatic as an actual  _penalty?_

Axel hesitated, leaned heavily against the tree, looking unhappily over his shoulder, back to where the laugh had originated from. He drew a deep breath, trying to analyse the intensity of the smoke. It was strong, but – very possibly a product of cigarettes, now that he focused on it. Cigarettes plus laughter – that wasn't necessarily anything too terribly bad, right? That was like someone on their coffee break.

In the, uh, middle of the forest. Surrounded by… mushrooms.

He sighed, muttered aloud, "If they start calling me girl names, I'm outta there," and reluctantly pushed away from the tree, making his way over.

The smoke grew thicker the closer he got, but rather than alarming him, Axel started to feel oddly – relaxed, in a weird sort of way. His muscles were looser, head clouding slightly. Suspiciously sniffing the air, he detected a hint of something sweet. He hesitated, an eyebrow rising as the dots connected in his head, some of the tension leaving his bearing, and not just because the fumes were getting to him. He supposed, on a sliding scale of people most likely to cause him bodily injury, a couple of stoners weren't going to be much trouble.

A little more confident, trying to keep his inhalation to a minimum, he followed the slowly writhing smoke that fogged the forest to its source, pushing past some heavy ferns and finding himself looking at a – a smoke-ship.

It was bright orange, hanging on the air, impossibly fragile and yet magnificently formed. It was perfect, floating gently into the dark forest. Blinking hard, stunned, Axel turned his gaze over to where a soft glow was coming from, in the middle of the gloom. Taking several steps towards it, he passed a neon-pink, smoke-formed deck of cards drifting past, dealing themselves out slowly and curling away into nothingness.

Voices were audible now, two from what he could tell, conversing and occasionally shouting with laughter. Shaken, awed, curiosity seizing him firmly, he continued, ducked under some thick undergrowth and emerged to see the biggest damn toadstool yet. It was the mothership of mushrooms, and on its soft yet firm, crimp-edged surface, two men lounged, wearing the same black coats that the last three guys had been sporting. However, these two were anything but the hyped-up aggression of eye-patch guy or the sinisterness of the one Roxas had called Marluxia.

They lay on their sides, heads supported by a bent arm, the one with short blond hair and an elegant goatee jutting a knee up, while the other, a thick-set man with black dreadlocks and fierce sideburns, had his legs curled beneath him. Both glanced over as Axel appeared out of the bushes, mouths hesitating on the thin pipes they were smoking, long, thin, curling tubes leading from each to a small, squat contraption off to one side, the source of the warm light and, obviously, the smoke they were puffing out.

The blond man clamped the metal bit between his teeth, its hose bobbing as he congenially asked, "Who the fuck're you?"

Well – they weren't automatically assuming he was the maid. That was a positive sign.

The dark-haired man drew the pipe out of his mouth and drawled in a husky, deep voice, "Something we can help you with, stranger?" With their every exhalation, brightly-coloured smoke exited their lungs into the air. While the blond's had been an unformed cloud, the larger man's formed the unmistakable shape of a yellow question mark, at which the blond pointed and cawed with laughter.

"Brilliant, Xal, fantastic! Now do me, do me!" He sucked on his pipe, wheezed out a puff of green, and, without either of them seeming to do anything that Axel could detect, this time the blond's smoke elaborately copied his friend's. This second question mark came breezing over towards him, breaking gently apart on his face. The blond applauded delightedly, while Axel coughed a little, squinting through the haze.

"Hi, there." He gave them an uncertain wave. "I was just, um, passing by, and thought I'd better come and – uh, not ignore you."

"You see, that's what I  _love_ about these bloody rules of Xemnas'," the blond one said to his partner, "it makes everyone so friendly to one another!" He clumsily reached around and patted a free patch of mushroom. "Come over and sit, lad, pull up a bit of fungus and join in the fun. What's your name? I'm Luxy, and my pal over there is Xally."

"Luxord and Xaldin," the dark man clarified, apparently not as slap-happy wasted as his friend. He lifted a thick brow. "And you are?"

"…Axel," the redhead said, shifting closer, but not clambering up onto the giant mushroom, happier with a couple feet between them.

Luxord blinked, grinned stupidly. "Axel?  _Axel!"_ He pawed at Xaldin, saying loudly, "Axel, Axe – I mean, Xally, do an  _axe_ now, do an axe!"

The larger man snickered, sucked on his pipe and blew out smoothly. The deep blue smoke twisted and writhed for a moment, before straightening into the shape of an axe. It started making chopping motions as it drifted over towards Luxord, making the blond squeal and giggle hysterically, swiping it away. Axel could only stare, mouth agape.

"Holy…! How do you  _do_ that? And, like, with the colours and stuff?"

Drawing a deep breath of mingled colours, Luxord calmed himself, shrugged as Xaldin took another drag, saying with the occasional lingering chuckle, "We don't rightly know ourselves – we're just having fun!"

"It's  _awesome,"_ Xaldin contributed, exhaling, the three of them watching as his red breath swirled into the shape of a happy face, Luxord smothering his giggles at the sight. Flicking the redhead a glance, the dark-haired man added, "Axel, why don't you come try it out? We're all friends here."

Slowly, an entertained half-smile in place as he watched Luxord trying to pull the face apart as it floated by overhead, he shook his head. "Ah, thanks all the same, but I don't smoke. Or, you know, other stuff."

Luxord puffed out some orange, complaining, "Aww, come on, be a pal with us! It's not like there's anything  _else_ to do in this place."

Axel hesitated, said, "Well, now that you mention it – the whole 'anything else to do' thing – I was wondering, could you guys maybe… point me in the direction out of these woods?"

Both men stared at him for a long moment, before bursting into identical shouts of laughter, apparently too amused to even make the smoke do anything cool. Axel's hopes withered, shoulders slumping, waiting dully for them to stop.

"No – no – no, seriously…" Luxord gasped in a breath. "Seriously, why don't you come join the party? Because – because – " Coherent speech dissolved once again, the man pounding the surface of the toadstool.

Letting out an impatient sigh, biting back a groan of irritation, Axel instead asked, "What about the White Rabbit? You guys think you could direct me his way?"

Once again, the pair paused in their mirth, this time looking surprised and perhaps halfway to serious, Xaldin wiping his eyes and echoing, "The White Rabbit? Interesting – what could you possibly want with  _him?"_

"Boring bloody bastard," the blond muttered in agreement. Axel folded his arms, glanced away.

"I just – want to find him, is all."

"Hmm." Xaldin relaxed, returning his head to its shelf on his broad palm, sucking meditatively at the pipe. "Well…" The smoke from his mouth quickly arranged itself into dozens upon dozens of small bricks, which then formed themselves into a cylinder with a bucket dropping down the middle. Luxord clapped his appreciation. "I suppose we could tell you where to go," the dark-haired man said slowly, Luxord raising an eyebrow as he puffed his own pipe.

He swapped a smirking glance with the blond, and, at some silent prompt, the pair of them inhaled deeply, filling their lungs and throats, eyes slipping shut as their chests expanded to their outermost limits. Then, as one, they heaved out the multi-coloured smog, and Xaldin quickly started talking, shapes forming rapidly in the cloud.

"What you wanna do, guy, is take a left at the old oak, take the trail until you reach the frog pond, follow the creek until you reach a series of rocks and go to the first one, the second one,  _back_ to the first one, and jump straight across. Then you've gotta take the right-hand junction all the way to the lily-patch, take a left, then a right then a left, pass through the meadow and under the waterfall, swim a couple leagues until you reach the fjord, jump out and dry off, jump back in and take the rapids, take a  _right_ after that, climb out again and follow the path that's there. Once you reach it, that's when the hard shit starts –"

Head completely swathed in a rainbow of rivers, frogs, stones, arrows, flowers and trees, coughing and waving his hands through the air, Axel finally reached his limit, bellowed,  _"Enough!"_ Xaldin fell abruptly silent as the redhead heaved and gasped, unable to find a clean breath no matter where he turned, eyes streaming, head growing dizzier by the second.  _"Assholes!"_

Turning, he stumbled out of the hollow, clawing his way through the overgrown flora, the second the air cleared sucking in desperate, hacking lungfuls of oxygen. He fell to his knees, vomited the meagre contents of his stomach into a copse of fungi, clutching the soil and trying to not keel over. Chest burning, he panted heavily, eyes squeezing shut as he crawled away from the mess he'd made and found a tree to lean against, praying his senses would quickly return.

For a while there was blissful silence. There was no glowing light, no colours – just the cool dimness, the purity of chilly air, the smell of vegetation and crushed ants. Looking down blearily at the trail of insects he'd dropped a knee on, cursing under his breath as a couple of them nipped at his flesh, he stood, swayed, fled a few feet and shook the few clinging ones away. Rubbing a wrist over his forehead, he tilted his head back and inhaled with relief, his head finally starting to settle down from the intensity of the fumes.

He supposed that this was what he got for half-believing any of these guys had an ounce of sanity between them.

Shooting a resentful look back towards the distant spot of warm light, glittering through the minute gaps in the underbrush, he glanced around, recognised the direction in which the very first of Xaldin's coloured arrows had pointed, and resignedly started trudging away.

Distantly, he heard a faint call of his name. Frowning, he paused, looked back, and saw, way, way away, a small figure jumping up and down to be seen. Again, his name was bellowed from afar, Luxord trying to get his attention. Scowling, Axel debated for a moment, then sighed shortly, turned and picked his way back towards the gigantic toadstool. Pushing aside the enormous palm fronds, he stuck his head back into the clearing and demanded, "What is it? What do you want?"

Luxord and Xaldin were sitting cross-legged, puffing demurely at their pipes, the blond letting loose an elegant smoke ring all of his own design. "We thought there was something you should know," he said after a moment, squinting through the centre of the loop. Xaldin nodded, removing the metal bit from his mouth.

"It's important, for someone of your disposition," he informed the redhead gravely.

"And for our jobs," Luxord mused, before the tube connecting him to the oddly-shaped smoke-machine bobbed with his inhalation. Clearing his throat, Xaldin turned to face Axel front-on, sitting tall and squaring his shoulders. Axel, for his part, suspicious but curious, waited patiently.

"The mushrooms," Xaldin said calmly. "The mushrooms. They're everywhere. You should try one, whenever you're in need. They'll help you out."

Frowning, eyes narrowing, Axel cagily surmised, "You want me to eat the mushrooms?"

Luxord waved his pipe around airily, releasing a breath of purple. "They're all over the place," he confirmed, "and I guarantee – each and every one will get you  _wasted."_

Axel glared heavily at them for a moment, then, as they blinked innocently back, gave a wordless snarl and let the fronds snap firmly back into place, stomping off through the woods.

He stepped on each and every mushroom he came across, kicking the larger ones as far as he could, an incessant, dry crunching marking his progress.  _"Eat_ the mushrooms? You mean like Roxas told me  _not_ to, so I don't get  _trapped_ here?" he hissed, destroying another collection of the off-white fungi. So it was part of their jobs to try and get him to eat something and be stuck in this place for life? Why, all of a sudden, was the tale of Persephone running so clearly through Axel's mind? "Sons-of-bitches," he growled.

For a while, he crashed through the forest heedlessly, not paying attention to where he was going, not trying, for once, to find some semblance of direction or order, not even on the lookout for anyone who would try to hurt him – just smashing all the toadstools he could find, and blazing his  _own_ damn trail, never mind attempting to follow the insane directions that Xaldin had provided.

He suddenly wished he'd brought along his torching tools – his arc welder, or even just an aerosol of deodorant and his lighter. The lighter he'd had in his pocket at the circus was long gone, probably got lost when he was chasing after the goddamn cat in the first place.

He wanted to yell out to Roxas; wanted to make the blond come and explain a thing or two, even just reiterate his stupid rules, the ones that were probably keeping him alive and which he hadn't paid much attention to at the time of delivery, what with being distracted by the ears and  _tail._ He wanted to kick himself for being so damn – lacking in foresight!

But he was worried that if he  _did_ call to Roxas, that would mean one of his saves was used up, whether he needed it or not, and he was pretty sure he was going to need all the help he could get.

So he did the only thing he  _could_ do – continue blindly, and, with dwindling hope, try to come out somewhere beneficial. Thoughts of actually getting home were fading further and further into the obscurity of unlikelihood – maybe if he just found this stupid King everyone was always yapping about, he could ask  _him_ for a way home. He seemed to be the one all these goddamn crazies deferred to – hell, at the very least, Axel could ask him to  _call off his dogs._ It would be  _nice_ to just encounter  _someone_ that wasn't weird, or enigmatic, or trying to bullshit him in one way or another. Jesus, it'd be  _bliss._

He crunched his way through the trees, growing slower and slower. How many hours had it been since he'd woken up, anyway? How many long, smoky, pain-filled hours since he'd first met Roxas, sitting up a tree with his tail dangling down? Hell, how long had it been since he'd eaten a decent  _meal?_ He was  _dying_ here, his stomach had gone beyond the point of plotting a revolution by lunging up his throat to choke him, and had by now simply resigned itself to a lonely, empty death.

Basically, he was exhausted. He didn't know how long he'd been wandering when he started stumbling, and eventually, there was no stark reason he could come up with to not just  _stop._ His movements ceased, for the first time in hours, and he sat himself on the forest floor, slumped against a fallen tree. Knees drawing up slowly, he propped his elbows on them, and held handfuls of hair as his face dangled down.

He started to doze, caught himself, blinking incredulously. "I can't sleep here," he murmured, wiping his face hard. "I… Aw, hell, who'm I kidding?"

When you were stuck in the middle of nowhere and starving, things like bed-etiquette pretty much flew out the non-existent window. Axel lay down next to the log, a bundle of leaves as his pillow, an arm bent up awkwardly under his head, and closed his eyes. The darkness behind his lids was the most peace he'd ever thought could exist.

For a while, he slept.

Birds called softly in the high boughs of the trees. Small creatures picked their way past the slumbering bundle that reeked of ash and blood. Bugs scampered unfelt over his skin, a couple getting tangled in his hair. The sun shifted, and, gradually, a pool of light formed where he was lying, illuminating and warming. Axel stretched out slowly, eyelids twitching faintly with dream.

Which is when, from above, an entire fucking branch was dropped on him, complete with a bird's nest of hysterically cheeping babies.

Axel woke up screaming.

The birds were going nuts, fluttering around on half-trained wings, and, moments later, as he thrashed and yelled, the mother came swooping down to attack.  _"Son-of-a-bitch!"_ the redhead shrieked, at last managing to shove the branch off and scramble to his feet, covering his head as he pelted through the trees, trying to escape the vicious, slicing beak.

At that point, the woman in the black coat swung down from the tree right in front of him, her hands wrapped around a jutting bough, and slammed her size-elevens right into his face. Next thing Axel knew, he was on his back, bleeding again, as the blonde-haired chick with the slicked-back bangs screeched,  _"Snake!"_ Her boots dropped into the dirt, Axel letting out a grunting cry and rolling onto his stomach, staggering to his feet and running as she came after him, howling,  _"Snake! Snaaake! Monster! Snake!"_

After dodging trees for several meters, ribs burning from where the branch had struck him, warmth trickling from one nostril, hearing her growing rapidly closer, he stopped, held his breath, turned, and punched her. She stumbled briefly, evidently not expecting the attack, clutching the side of her face with wide eyes. Then her icy-blue gaze narrowed, lips pulling back from her teeth, a low hiss gushing from between them.

"A snake in our forest!"

Axel snatched up a dead branch, wielding it like a baseball bat, shouting, "I am  _not_ a fucking  _snake!"_ Shaking his head agitatedly, he demanded, "Just how the fuck many of you are permanently stoned on  _hallucinogens?!_ I am  _not_ a girl, I am  _not_ a maid, I am  _not_ a weed,  _and I am not a snake!"_

"Then what  _are_ you?" the blonde asked silkily, circling him like a predator, her steps light and quick.

"I'm just a  _guy, for Christ's sake!"_ Axel bellowed.

She snorted, "A likely story!" and lunged, bare hands hooked into claws. Already more than ready for her, Axel swung once, missed, caught her on the back-swing and sent her thudding into a nearby tree.

"Hey, how do  _you_ like it,  _bitch?"_ he snarled. "Wake me up by dropping half a tree on me, huh?"

She lounged against the tree almost lazily, grinning darkly over at him as she swiped a thumb through her own matching blood trail. "When I see a snake in the King's forests, I act. There you were, warming your cold, cold blood in our sunshine… Don't try to fool me, you disgusting little  _serpent."_

Axel shook his head slowly, eyeing her off with new amazement. "You're – completely nuts, aren't you? You're just… you're  _mad."_

She laughed a little, said throatily, "Oh, you can't help that. We're  _all_ mad here."

Axel dropped his chin, waved his makeshift weapon threateningly. "Yeah? Well, I don't want to go among mad people."

The woman sneered. "So what are you going to  _do_ about it, snake?"

The redhead froze, and she shoved off the tree, leapt straight for him, got the middle of the branch rammed right into her throat, slamming her down with a knee to the gut.

It was around about then that Axel realised he was beating up a defenceless woman. A vicious bitch who  _started_ it, but weaponless, and entirely too female. It didn't even matter that she was obviously part of the black-coat brigade – every issue of male honour suddenly reared up and snatched hold of his brain, sending him stumbling back, breathing hard, as she rolled around clutching her gut. Still, that smile lingered – she couldn't catch her breath, she was bleeding, but goddamn it, she wouldn't just lie down and die.

Axel ditched the branch and ran. He sprinted as fast as he could, pumped with adrenaline, and didn't stop until he was completely, utterly certain that he was alone. He hadn't heard her pursuing – he could only glance fearfully at the trees and hope she wasn't swinging through them like some demented jungle-girl. It seemed, though, for the moment at least, that he'd successfully fled.

Now that he was paying attention to his surroundings, he realised that the forest seemed to have brightened again, despite the graduation from morning to late afternoon. The trees were a little more loosely spaced, more average in width and height, the undergrowth calmer, less wild and tangled. It was more like normal woodland, the woods closer to home… It looked like he'd finally made it out of the bad parts.

He didn't pause to catch his breath, didn't quite trust his surroundings, and so continued at an easy pace, hands on hips as he sucked chest-expanding inhalations and tried to dampen down the jumpy feeling.

He'd now officially got to the point where he couldn't quite relax, no matter how resolutely he tried to calm himself. There was just no point to it – it seemed like the very moment he let his guard down each time, something happened to prove what a bad idea that had been. Every noise made his eyes dart, even the birdcalls now a cause for paranoia, hands instinctively smoothing agitatedly through his hair each time he heard wings go fluttering overhead.

The longer he walked, the more peaceful the woods became. Unknowingly, his steps regained their regular pace, heart thumping a little as he started unconsciously searching for landmarks, his mind stirring at the familiarity of it all. It looked so much like the trees close to home… and then, distantly, he heard the birdsong change.

Frowning, his head swung around, ears pricking, trying to define what it was that had caught his attention. The usual chirps and chitters had taken on a shrill tone, a greater order, more structured-sounding – almost like music. Shaking his head, unable to quite believe that he'd stumbled across a birdie-choir going through their warm-ups, he couldn't help but curiously venture over towards the sound.

The closer he got, the more obvious it became that it was, in fact, something other than birds, more like the high, fluting tones of an organ – accompanied, he realised with a steadily sinking sensation, by a voice singing along. There were people nearby, and he was – too superstitious at this point to not follow through on the rules. He supposed that at least  _this_ time he was going into it with utter suspicion – that would hopefully make it more difficult for whoever it was to pull a fast one on him.

Resignedly, regretting his stupid urge to find the cause of  _anything_ in this God-abandoned forest, he headed for the voice, the music, and brought Roxas' name to the tip of his tongue for ready use.

 


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

\--

The first thing that startled a slight amount of hope into Axel was the fact that, completely spontaneously, a clear and obvious path appeared in front of him. He blinked at it in surprise, the neat deliberation of it, the fact that someone had taken the time to brush the forest floor clean and cut a narrow but definite road into it. It was almost encouraging – he hadn't seen anything man-made in far too long, and it reeked of the desperately sought-after civilisation. Hey, who knew – maybe this time, it  _wouldn't_ be a bunch of freaks waiting for him?

He followed the path, looking around cautiously, and was met with his second surprise of the hour – a crossroads, complete with a sign buried at their meeting point. One arrow pointed back the way he'd come; another jutted off to the right, while a third directed him over to the left. About thirteen others stabbed in every other direction, including both directly up, and directly down, and absolutely none of them had an ounce of anything English on them.

A short, stubby, cracked one pointed ahead to the third, and possibly most flooring revelation – a hedge, a grown and trimmed  _hedge_  in the middle of the woods, short like a fence, and, right in the middle of it, a small swinging gate. It looked well-crafted, obviously done by hand, by someone who knew what they were doing – and would hopefully not be in a hurry to see it go up in flames.

Interest strong, pulse a-flutter with mounting anticipation, he pushed through the little oiled door, clicked it carefully shut behind him, and continued along the path, which was growing more solid by the foot.

At last, with the volume of the piping and singing reaching its fever pitch, he entered into a large, cultivated garden, shortly-trimmed grass, with, taking up most of the broad space, a long, banquet-sized table covered in an assortment of – teapots? Steaming, screeching teapots?

Axel's hope guttered and died, as his eyes rested upon the singers – two black-clad men at the far end of the table, and, beside them, a silent, pale girl in a white dress, her attention focused on a sketching pad. She had the ears and tail of a mouse, Axel's jaw dropping at the sight.

The more lively of the males was hopping and skipping from chair to chair, more often than not burning his fingers as he switched a countless amount of insanely-coloured and designed teapots onto and off of small burners set up haphazardly along the tablecloth, singing all the while at the top of his lungs. The music, astoundingly enough, was coming from the differently-shaped teapots – each one let out its own shrilling note as it boiled, handled dextrously into a stuttering melody by the dancing blond, who bellowed nonsensical lyrics in surprising harmony.

The second participant in the black coat also wore an enormous black top-hat over his slate-coloured hair, pressing his long fringe across one eye. He remained sitting, but, just as swiftly and perhaps with a shade better adroitness because of his stillness, contributed to the tune willingly, a small smile in place. His lips remained sealed, leaving the singing to his companion. Two seats down from him sat the girl, completely focused on whatever she was drawing, pencil moving with quick, confident strokes across the pad.

It was in fact the white-clad, bloodless girl that spotted Axel first, her pencil pausing and blue eyes rising to stare at the teapot directly in front of her, before slowly turning her gaze to where he stood. He blinked rapidly as she stared, a long, wordless moment passing between them, her expression utterly unchanging. She was – almost eerie in her emptiness.

Spotting her diverted attention, the blond man twisted sharply, a film of sweat shining on his brow, cheeks coloured a heavy pink from exertion. He jumped a little, startled by the appearance of the filthy and awkward-looking redhead, before his face split into a broad, friendly grin.

Axel winced, and waited for the crazy to come gushing forth.

"A visitor!" the blond yelled gleefully, momentarily abandoning the teapots to skip over, Axel flinching back a step. The man clapped his hands happily, grabbed Axel by the arm and half-dragged over to the enormously long table, demanding, "What's your name, stranger? Where you from?" He tipped his head back and yelled, "Zexionnnnn! We've got a visitoooor!" He then wrapped his hands around Axel's shoulders, pushed him in front of one particularly large chair, and forcefully sat him down, before the redhead even had a chance to object.

The other man, the one in the hat, said in light, clipped tones, "Welcome, welcome, if we'd known you were coming to the party we'd have served extra. There's really not enough places, not enough tea for certain, but we'll make do with what we have."

Axel looked blankly at the dozens of pots littering the surface of the table, which the blond was rapidly taking off the boil, their high piping growing more intensely piercing the longer they were left in place. New, cold pots were put in their place, and for a while, there was only the noise of hissing water.

"Not enough places?" he echoed weakly. He gestured to the rows of empty seats. "What about all those?"

"Not enough seats!" the blond bellowed, from right next to his ear, just about giving the weary redhead a heart-attack. "Move down, time to move down!"

The man in the hat, Zexion, jumped up promptly, abandoning the cup he'd been pouring for Axel, and started pushing and prodding at the redhead to get him moving. Axel, for his part, just went along with bewilderment, trying not to trip over any protruding chair-legs, until the blond abruptly grabbed him and shoved him down onto a rickety wooden seat.

Zexion clapped his hands together elegantly, settling beside him and commanding, "Demyx, get our guest some tea, right away!"

The blond saluted with two fingers, winked, responded in jolly tones, "You got it, Zexy." He then clicked his tongue, turned his head and screamed,  _"Naminé, get your ass over here! There's no room down there!"_

The girl looked up, blinking sleepily at them for a moment, before letting loose a slight sigh and rising to her feet, tucking the book against her chest as she weaved between the many, completely empty seats, and took her place anew beside Zexion.

Demyx, meanwhile, had slammed a cup down on the tablecloth in front of Axel, had shovelled several teaspoons of sugar into it, and was stirring violently as he added tea straight from the pot. Zexion placed his elbows on the table's surface, a cup clasped in his hands as he asked, "So, tell us about yourself! What's your name, where are you going?"

The redhead tried to catch his breath, green eyes attempting to take in the many sights, the absolutely confounding structure of some of the pots, while weathering the overwhelming hyperactivity he'd wandered into. "M-my name's Axel," he started.

Demyx barked out a delighted sound. "Axel! Marvellous! Milk?" he demanded sharply. Axel blinked, stuttered for a moment, nodded. The blond snatched up a small jug and started painstakingly pouring a drizzle of white into his cup, focusing intently.

"So, your name is  _Axel,"_ Zexion prompted, sipping delicately. He made a 'go-on' gesture with one hand, the redhead's mouth opening and closing for a moment.

"Well, I – I've been walking around the woods all day."

"Tea's ready!" Demyx declared loudly. Axel looked up at him, down at his drink, stared for a moment at the watery-white concoction with several stray tea leaves bobbing on its surface.

"I… um… thank you…" He hesitated, reached for it, wrapping his hands around the hot porcelain.

Demyx's hands rested heavily on his shoulders, the redhead pausing with the cup halfway to his mouth, as he whispered darkly into his ear, "Drink deeply, friend."

Axel froze, eyes widening. Zexion looked at the two of them, scowled, crashed his cup down and suddenly snapped, "There's no room here!"

Demyx shot up straight, roared,  _"No room! No roooom!_ Move down, move down, move  _down!"_ He snatched handfuls of Axel's shirt and jerked the redhead to his feet, the little cup flying out of his hands and going bouncing down the table. He skipped as he dragged the man along the length of the table, before throwing him into a lumpy, soft armchair, better suited to a living room than a dining table. Zexion sat on his other side, snapped his fingers in the air and called, "Naminé, hurry now!" then turned to Axel and asked, "Tea?"

Demyx darted off as the various pots began to boil on their stoves, shuffling them back and forth and recreating the music from before, starting to sing again. The blonde girl slumped into the chair between Axel and Zexion, rested her book against the side of the table and resumed her drawing without a glance at either male.

As Zexion expertly began pouring a new cup of tea for each of them, he encouraged, "So, you were saying, Axel? How did you end up walking around the woods all day?"

"Oh – uh, well… I suppose it all  _started_ with the  _cat,"_ the redhead sighed, keeping a wary eye on the cups.

Demyx and Zexion both stiffened sharply, as Naminé's head popped up, blue eyes wide as she suddenly demanded, "Cat? You saw a cat? Which cat? Where?" She started to stand, looking around wildly. "Where's the cat? Did you see where he went?" Dropping her book and pencil on the table, she cupped her hands around her mouth, frantically called,  _"Roxa-_ ah!" She was jammed hard down into her seat, biting her lip accidentally, Demyx's wide hands clutching her shoulders tightly.

"What was that, Nam?" he shouted over the screech of the teapots. "You want more  _tea?"_ She struggled desperately, shouting muffled words made incoherent by the hot palm clamped against her lips, succeeding only in letting loose a series of high grunts and squeals. Her mouse ears were flicking madly, her small body thrashing as she fought his grip, tail stiff to one side.

"The jam!" Zexion barked, lunging across the table for a jar of sticky purple substance, its label blank except for the happy face that had been clumsily drawn onto it. It was, however, out of his reach, closer to Axel's end. He slammed his hands into the redhead's arm, shouted, "Get it, get it quick, she's about to lose control!"

Taken aback, Axel started to ask, "Wait, what's she trying to say? What was that about - ?"

" _Now, Axel!"_ Demyx howled, as Naminé started to wail and claw at his wrists, her knees banging the table. With Zexion yelling in his ear, Axel was compelled to obey, lurched across and grabbed up the jam. It was snatched out of his hand the second it came within reach, Zexion scraping up a dollop of the lumpy, grape-coloured mixture, shouting, "Dem, incoming!"

The blond wrenched his hands away from the girl, her mouth opening wide, crying,  _"Rox – "_

In the next heartbeat, she was choking and gagging on the jam, Demyx locking a hand back over her mouth, smearing the extraneous stickiness over her cheeks as he pinched off her nose with his other fingers, tipping her head forcefully back so that he was looking down into her eyes. "Come on, Nam, swallow it down," he said soothingly, holding hard as she struggled with less and less strength. "That's it, that's right, just you swallow, and then you'll be able to breathe again, yeah?"

Axel watched in horror as the girl writhed, tears escaping her closing eyes, a sob wracking her body, unable to let it loose with the way she was being tormented. "No –  _no,_ what are you  _doing?"_ He jumped to his feet, Zexion cutting him off with an arm across the chest.

"No, stop – she's doing it," he murmured.

The girl's exposed throat convulsed in a long swallow, and then, like a switch being thrown, she suddenly fell limp.

Cautiously, Demyx released her nose, a sharp breath being taken in, but other than that, Naminé did nothing. Gently, the blond pushed her back up, settling her down in her chair, and when her eyes opened again, there was a new blankness in them. Axel recoiled, disgust and dismay on his face as she relaxed back into her slump-shouldered state, gazing dully at the teapots on the table.

After watching her closely for a long moment, Demyx and Zexion both let out relieved sighs. "Oh, thank goodness," the slate-haired man muttered, brushing the splayed hair back across his face, slouching down a little in his chair. Demyx, meanwhile, held up his hands, covered in the same stickiness that now glistened on the girl's face, and asked nervously, "Uh, Zexy? Little help here?"

"Oh, of course, of course!" Zexion stood, grabbed a handful of tablecloth and gestured the blond over. He and Demyx then carefully and thoroughly wiped his hands clean of all sign of the jam, the blond muttering that he felt a little 'sleepy'. Zexion took up a cold cup of tea and poured it over his fingers in a final wash, neither of them fully relaxing until they were sure it was entirely gone.

Axel sat in a state of shock, watching their every move with a horrible flicker of dawning comprehension. Noticing a sticky patch on his own fingers from where he'd touched the jar, he was suddenly anxious to remove it, scrubbing it on the table's surface, dipping the first two fingers of his other hand into his half-poured hot tea and rubbing it completely away.

Noticing, Demyx smiled ruefully, nodded and said, "You don't wanna get any of that in your mouth, man. Not for general consumption, you know?" Zexion tugged on his wrist, said something sharply under his breath, making the blond blink. "…Uh, that is," he then hurried to correct, "you're more than welcome to try it if you feel like it!" When Zexion sighed, shook his head irritably, Demyx amended, "Tea! How about I make you a nice hot cup of  _tea?"_

Axel stared for a long, silent minute. Zexion shot him an inscrutable look, adjusted his hat, announced, "I think it's time for a riddle, actually, Demyx." He gave Axel a thin smile. "Do you like riddles, Axel? Demyx and I are  _quite_ fond of them."

The redhead's gaze slid over to where Naminé sat, looking utterly lifeless, like a person-sized doll that someone had used and abandoned into a dumpster somewhere. He got such a chill from all of this; his stomach was churning with sharp, sickening anxiety. And she – hadn't she been trying to call for Roxas? What had that been?

Had she been trying to use her third and final save in those precious few lucid moments?

Rather than answer Zexion, Axel turned his attention to her drawing pad, still where she had dropped it on the table. He reached over to pick it up, and looked expressionlessly down at the image she had been sketching out.

"Axel?" Demyx ventured hesitantly, resting his hands on Zexion's shoulders and massaging lightly. "Do you, uh, wanna hear Zexion's riddle? It's a really good one… and then maybe we can all have some tea…"

It seemed like the ones that weren't trying to outright kill him were the most dangerous of all.

Axel stood abruptly, shoving the chair back with his knees. It caught on a clump of grass and tipped over backward, bumping to the ground. The redhead stepped over its jutting legs, plucking up the lead pencil the girl had been using, and carried both over to her. Studying her for a moment, feeling ill at the emptiness in her features, he gently placed the book in her lap, slipped the pencil into her limp fingers, careful to not brush any of the jam that lingered on her skin.

Slowly, her eyes turned down to the pad, taking in the image that was there. Her fingers twitched slightly, lifted the pencil uncertainly, and, within moments, she was back to working on it, tuning out the rest of the world.

Axel's hand hovered for a moment, as he searched for a place to safely pat her, ending up tapping his hand against the crown of her head, between the delicate rodent ears adorning either side of her scalp. "Don't – stop drawing," he urged her softly.

She gave no sign that she had heard him, or felt him. She just kept sketching Roxas.

He turned as a hand touched his arm, found himself looking into the cold glare of Zexion, the man's hat pulled low over his brow. "…You should go," he said icily. "She can't leave here, anyway."

Snarling silently, Axel wrenched free of his grip, stared him down for a long moment. The look was returned unwaveringly, utterly steady and lacking in remorse, Demyx watching anxiously from the sidelines. At length, the redhead cut his eyes down to the side and shoved past, stalking down the length of the table. Demyx came after him, a finger raised, saying dubiously, "Uhm, Axel, how – how about that riddle? There – how, how is a raven like a writing desk? Uh – do you, do you want some tea?"

Axel shoved him out of the way as he attempted to engage his gaze, followed the path back out and slammed through the pretty little gate, taking an iota of vicious satisfaction in the way it cracked against its hinges. He returned to the crossroads, glowered wordlessly up at the useless collection of signs, clenched and loosened his fists several times, then sighed heavily, closing his eyes. He concentrated on gaining a little control, sucking in deep, steady breaths, and wished that the terrible trembling that had taken hold of his limbs would go away.

For one scary moment, he felt like he was getting ready to explode, do something drastic – maybe scream, maybe cry hysterically, maybe uproot the stupid crossroads sign and go back to maul the tea-sucking fuckers back there and rescue the little girl from their clutches. The only thing really stopping him doing that last option was Zexion's last words to him, ringing with dreadful truth.

So – had Naminé eaten the jam? Had she had a sip of tea? Had she always been a mouse, or did that kind of thing only happen to the people that didn't wear the black coats? Even the Riku twins had a similar, unnatural freakiness –  _"There is only one Riku."_

Axel's head was spinning and hurting at the same time. It made him want to hurl all over again, but by now, his stomach was just – hollow. There was nothing. He had to endure to slow burn of wretchedness completely without relief.

He chose a direction, the right-hand path from the hedge, and set off at a trudge, with a worn acceptance that this was all that was left. At least a path was better than nothing, better than stomping through sticks and fucking… fucking  _mushrooms._ Christ, anything was better than that. It was nice to feel something firm beneath his feet for once, something that reminded him that the world wasn't just comprised of the wild.

In fact… it was feeling  _really_ firm, come to think of it. He paused, frowned at the magnified sound of his sneakers dragging, lifted one shoe and peered down, lips pursing. He touched his toe down experimentally, pushed it into the earth, scuffed it hard, and realised that it wasn't actually  _earth_ anymore. Not just a trail cut into the dirt – actual asphalt, something laid by hands and cement mixers. The kind that crumbled at the edges over time, forming potholes that required a small team of workmen to come out and patch up, when the park rangers' budgets were extensive enough.

Excitement ripped through his veins, unexpected and frightening – he didn't want to be disappointed, oh, God, he couldn't handle it if this was a hoax of some kind. He tried to dampen it, tried to keep a fatalistic view of things, even as he began to jog along the pavement, heart giddily thumping. Sweat popped out at his temples, forcing him to swipe it away as his pace increased, the plastic ends of his shoelaces skittering along audibly.

The clincher of it all was the sign he passed. It was metal, goddamn it, it reflected the last gasps of the rapidly sinking sun in a perfectly placed dent. It was scuffed, and the paint was chipped, it was old as hell, but it read  _Tulgey Wood,_ and that was enough to get him running.

Where was Tulgey Wood, again? He was sure he'd heard about it, recently in fact. Maybe it was the part where the rangers allowed the campers to go, to preserve the wildlife in the rest of the forest. Maybe he was heading along one of the quieter, more scenic bushwalks, about to break out and burst into someone's pitching area, their tents aglow with gas lamps and torches and the beautiful crackle of a carefully controlled bonfire.

They would have  _food,_ they would have  _water,_ he'd be able to pass out happily, in the knowledge that paramedics would be called by the petrified campers to come collect his malnourished and hypothermic carcass, and cart it off to be rejuvenated, care of the state.

Every hope, however, every wish and dream, every imagined sparkle of salvation, died the moment he saw the path end.

Axel slowed, halted, the blood draining from his face as he stared at the clean-cut edge several feet away. The asphalt just – stopped. Like someone had grabbed a cleaver and sliced it away, scraped it up and thrown it out, deeming it useless, superfluous, unnecessary.

He approached tensely, green eyes ticking around hungrily in search of where it would continue. Even – even if it just became dirt from hereon in, he'd be happy, he'd be fine. Maybe they'd… run out of funding at this part. Maybe they were still building it.

Maybe, he thought, as he ventured a few steps into completely untamed woodland, he was deluding himself bitterly.

He stood for a moment, with the temperature dropping as evening fell. A light wind blew, ruffling his spiked, scarlet hair, chilling the many small cuts and bruises, his tongue coming out to press at the slices on his bottom lip. Scanning the area, Axel searched desperately for the exit to this place, as he'd so brightly imagined it.

There wasn't one.

Heart sinking slowly, hurting almost, the disappointment just as viciously hot at he'd imagined it, he turned, stricken, to follow the path back to the crossroads. Perhaps he'd just… chosen the wrong one. Backtrack half an hour, and he'd be fine. He could keep going for a couple hours yet, as long as there was a little road to follow.

Only thing was, when he looked for the path to follow it back – it wasn't there anymore. It was just… it was  _gone._

Eyebrows drawing together, throat constricting with panic, Axel stood frozen for a moment, before launching into overdrive, tearing through the trees in a frantic hunt, gaze darting all over the place in search of the unmistakeably man-made creation. With the light of the newly twinkling stars shining down on him, Axel threw himself from one copse to the next, refusing to pause, not daring to give up that  _one_ and  _only_ spark of hope he had. It was the  _only thing_ that suggested he'd been on the right path – there'd been the sign, the  _sign,_ damn it! If he could just get  _back_ there, if he could just… if he  _could_ …

But he was… lost.

He no longer knew where he was in relation to where the path was supposed to be. He didn't know where he should head to try and relocate it, because everything looked different in the darkness. He recognised  _nothing._

"Oh, come on," he whispered brokenly, turning in a circle, searching for anything that would look vaguely familiar. However, other than the fact that every gnarled tree bore a striking resemblance to its predecessor... "No," he muttered, hands rising to his head, eyes squeezing shut. "No, no,  _no._ I am  _not_ staying in this place overnight. I  _can't."_ Eyes flashing back open, he added shakily, "There's no  _way."_

Apparently, the dark and silent woods didn't agree.

Hands slipping down to cup his mouth, he sucked a hard breath through his nose, panic evident in its shortness.

He resumed walking for a while, utterly aimless now, stopping when he reached the edge of some wetlands. A small waterfall trickled nearby, flashes of pale moonlight glinting against its stream. Axel sat numbly on a large, flat rock, fingers fidgeting between his legs as he stared into the darkness and came to terms with the fact that this was it.

He was cold, starving, dirty and sticky, he had a bad taste in his mouth, and he was too scared to even rinse it out in the clean-flowing water, not for the usual fear of bacteria, but the more pertinent one that he would then be here forever. If he couldn't handle twenty-four hours in the place, he was pretty sure he'd end up throwing himself off a cliff if he somehow doomed himself here for eternity.

Setting an elbow against one knee, he reached up with the heel of his palm, bending his neck and rubbing hard at the slow, hot prickle that had taken up residence in his eyes. Jaw clenching, sniffing hard, he pressed a fist into the bridge of his nose, lips pressed thin, and struggled to remain in control.

The moon rose overhead, a thin crescent like a grinning mouth, and gradually, Axel became aware of soft fingers stroking his hair. He blinked a couple of times, felt a spike being gently tugged, before a warm set of lips pressed to the side of his face. He turned his head with a slight jerk, and found himself looking into Roxas' eyes, the blond sitting crouched on the rock beside him, a hand sifting carefully through the man's red locks.

Roxas smiled faintly, a thumb brushing over his temple, smoothing an eyebrow, coaxing Axel's eyes closed again. "You've done so well," the blond whispered huskily. His other hand came out, to trace the contours of Axel's face, careful and tender. "You're so close now, Axel. Don't be sad – it's nearly over." He kissed his forehead, tucked their heads together for a long minute, Axel just about crumbling in his grasp, breaths growing unsteady as he fought his exhaustion, the accumulated horror of the day. With one final peck on the tip of his nose, Roxas drew back, rested a hand along his cheek, and said quietly, "If you really want to leave this place, you need to ask the King of Hearts, at the palace."

Swallowing thickly, tongue dry, Axel inhaled and nodded, eyes slowly opening, a grimace in place as he met the blond's sympathetic gaze. "Yeah," he croaked. "I'm – ready now. I've had enough. I want to go home." Turning instinctively into the boy's cupping hand, he asked, "How do I find this – palace place?"

Smiling faintly, Roxas shrugged. "There's a lot of different ways to get there… Some people take the high road, some take the low…" Drawing a breath, he turned his head, gazed out into the wetlands. "But me, I prefer – the shortcut."

Following the direction of his stare, Axel dubiously asked, "What, out there? Isn't that all swampy?"

Roxas twisted back, gave him a crooked grin. "The beauty of a shortcut," he pointed out, "is the fact that not everyone knows it's there." Growing serious again, he added, "There's a way through that only I know. It'll take you straight to the palace." Seeing the continuing doubt on the redhead's face, Roxas sighed, tilted his head back and kissed his way along his jaw, ending up at his throat, nuzzling it gently. "It'll be okay. I give you my word that I won't let you be hurt."

His hands rising to take loose handfuls of the blond's shirt, Axel gazed over through the darkness, then, after a moment's hesitation, nodded. "Okay. I trust that you'll – keep your word."

Pulling back with a smile, Roxas smoothed his palms over Axel's hair, holding his face steady to study it for a moment. "Let's go, then," he said softly, firmly. He slid off the rock, the slightly spiked fur of his ears and tail glistening in the moonlight.

Axel followed the blond over past the waterfall, watching it as they went by. A small family of ducks heading the opposite way ignored the two males, webbed feet slapping wetly over the damp ground, dipping into the pool that the waterfall created and quacking loudly, piercing the hush.

Roxas paused at the edge of the wetlands proper, turning and sending Axel a hard look. "Make sure to follow me closely," he warned. "It's too easy to lose your way and end up sinking. Just one step in the wrong direction and you go from standing on the surface to sucking water."

Nervously shifting from foot to foot, Axel nodded, trying to not let his concern show. A moment later, he was surprised to have a warm hand squeezing his own tightly, Roxas standing close. "It'll be okay," the blond encouraged quietly. "Didn't I tell you? Just keep following me. Even if you feel the ground start to dip, keep walking where I walk."

"Yeah – no problem," Axel confirmed, agitation clamped down on. After a moment of searching his face, Roxas nodded, turned, and set off into the gloom.

It was slow going. Axel's sneakers grew quickly heavy with damp, darkening from their regular dull, dirty white to a murky brown, socks revoltingly icy and squishy against his flesh. Still, if it meant getting out of here sooner, he'd follow Roxas just about anywhere. And so far, things were going well. They were progressing at a steady, picking pace, despite the way the mud sucked at their feet, sometimes slickly slippery and other times like glue. Every now and then, Roxas would pause, would turn and help him if he needed it, and little by little they made their way deeper into the swamp.

Eyes darting, Axel noticed that the trees further in were slowly dying, rotting, their roots inundated and drowning, trunks just about sagging apart into the water. That there was any path through here, visible or otherwise, was incredible. The redhead was grateful for each and every one of Roxas' sure steps, mimicking them almost exactly, the rhythmic, wet squelch of their progress a constant sound above the sleepy voices of the various waterfowl.

At one point, as they hit a patch of more viscous mud, Axel lost his right shoe. Cursing, he twisted, stretching back with his foot to try and hook it back up and on, arms spread as he attempted to keep his balance. "Hey, Roxas – wait up," he called, voice echoing through the dreariness. "Gotta get my shoe."

"Leave it there," Roxas advised. "It's already gone."

Scowling, Axel glanced back at him, then down to where it had been sucked off, only to realise that he couldn't see it anymore. The more he tried digging with his toes, the number they became, the harder it was to stay upright. After then losing his sock to the muck, he admitted defeat. "Well, shit," he complained, sighing irritably and carefully turning back around. Roxas had already carried on, growing further ahead. Frowning, Axel repeated, "Wait  _up,"_ and set off after him at a cautiously quick shuffle.

After only covering a few meters, his other shoe was claimed, the mud closing around his ankle.  _"Fuck,"_ he hissed. He raised his voice. "Roxas, I'm losing everything over here! My goddamn feet are gonna freeze  _off_ at this rate – you never told me it was going to be this cold!"

"Just keep going, Axel," the voice came floating back patiently. "It won't be long now."

"Oh, yeah?" the redhead demanded, wrenching his now-bare, filthy foot free and hobbling after him.  _"How_ long? And  _would you please stop getting so far ahead?"_ With a sigh, Roxas drew to a halt, turning and waiting for him to catch up. "It's getting deeper," Axel muttered, tugging at the legs of his jeans as the cuffs filled with black, mould-scented water.

"It's fine where I am." The blond pointed down to where his feet rested perfectly along the surface, barely causing a ripple. Axel scowled.

"Hey, how come  _I_ end up losing my shoes, but yours look just fine? They're not even  _dirty,_ Roxas, how'd you end up  _aagh!"_ He broke off into a startled yelp as he suddenly plunged down into the freezing water, splashing hard, the swamp slopping all around him. Axel kicked and gasped, voice bouncing off the trees as he wailed, arms thrashing around, before realising, feet touching the mud, that it only came up to his ribs.

He stood panting for a moment, before screeching,  _"Holy shit!"_ Head whipping back, he cried up at Roxas,  _"It's so fucking cold!_ You gotta help me out, Rox, I'm dying down here!" He started clawing at the water, searching for a solid edge by which to drag himself up, teeth already beginning to chatter violently. "Holy freaking… Roxas? Are you helping, or you just gonna stand there and laugh at me?" he demanded.

The silent blond stared at him for a moment, before saying in low tones, "I'm not laughing, Axel."

Pausing in his efforts, the redhead glared upward. "You're also not  _helping."_ He struggled for a moment, erratic movements causing ripples in the water, then felt an abrupt shift beneath his feet. Stiffening, going still, Axel's brows lowered. "Uh… Roxas?" He carefully reached around, pressing his hands into the slimy bank behind him, slowly trying to shift one foot, finding it stuck. "Roxas – the ground is… I think it's unstable." He looked down at himself. "Am I – am I a little deeper than I was before?" When the blond still didn't move, didn't offer any advice, Axel snarled, "Jesus, Roxas, would it  _kill_ you to…" He broke off sharply, inhaled hard enough to choke on a stray fleck of dirt clinging to his lip. He gazed in silence at where, only seconds before, the blond had been standing. But now… Roxas was gone.

He'd vanished.

"No," Axel muttered. "Oh,  _no,_ you are  _not_ leaving me here." Looking around angrily, unable to find him, he bellowed,  _"Roxas,_ you little  _bitch!_ Get back here! I'm  _sinking,_ you can't just – whoa!" He slipped downward, a slight pocket of air bubbling up to the surface as one leg was swallowed up to the calf. Spluttering and coughing as his face splashed into the water, he turned it onto the side, one cheek immersed, and gasped,  _"Get the fuck back here! You can't leave me like this!"_

His fingers slid away from the earthen wall, a cloud of dirt drifting over from where he'd snatched some out. Plunging his hands down into the icy water, Axel grabbed hold of the heavy denim leg of his jeans and tried yanking his foot loose, sucking a mixture of air and drops of water as the surface bobbed and slapped against his lowered face. Blinking and squeezing his eyes against the stinging, wet invasion, he struggled and fought, furious noises cracking out from between clenched teeth as he lost more and more of himself rapidly into the swamp.

At last, he straightened to find the water up around his chin, several more bubbles of old air rising as the ground choked him down piece by piece. Whining and thrashing, arms cutting back and forth as if he could swim his way to safety, he sank an inch at a time, the water filling his nostrils, flooding his mouth only to be quickly spat out. The man tipped his head right back, keeping his face up for as long as humanly possible, frenziedly chanting,  _"No, no, no, no!"_

Within moments, he would vanish below, no doubt to join the many others that the man with the pink hair had accused Roxas of drowning out here, where Axel had so incredibly stupidly, blindly followed.  _As if kisses equalled trust!_

Face contorting, Axel sucked a deep lungful of air, ending up gulping down filthy water and gagging, choking, retching it back up. With a low, desperate scream, he cried, "Roxas!  _Roxas!_  I still have two – fucking – saves – left! I'm calling your name, you bastard!  _Roxas!"_

He dipped below the surface, a burst of chaos erupting as he fought with every last ounce of oxygen he had left, hair floating up towards the surface, no longer in spikes but swaying ribbons. Time running out, he screamed Roxas' name a final time, in a boiling swirl of bubbles.

This time, there was nothing to replace the breath he lost, nothing but frigid, murky water. He covered his mouth, pinched off his nose, curling down into himself as the mud held him. Heartbeat roaring, blood thudding like the blows of a sledgehammer through his ears, Axel cursed Roxas with every last thought and emotion he possessed.

As he began to fade, stars exploding in front of his eyes in the precious few moments before his body took over and forced him to inhale, Axel saw – a face. A face looming out of the pitch darkness, right beside him, deep down in the water. Invisible hands crawled up his body, pressed hotly against the skin of his ribs, beneath his billowing shirt, and slid hard into his armpits. For a moment, Axel and the apparition were nose-to-nose, staring at each other, the redhead's hands still clamped hard over his lower face.

Then, as his eyelashes fluttered shut, there was a surge of motion, a jolt, ice spreading down his legs as his hair flattened down around his shoulders. Seconds later, he hit the air, instinct kicking in and deep, screeching breaths being choked inward.

Axel passed out for a couple of minutes, system kicked hard by the sudden rush of oxygen, and came to in the midst of vomiting violently into the mud. Fluid he didn't even know he'd inhaled came heaving out, chest burning painfully as he coughed uncontrollably, fingers digging into the ground, entire body shaking and jumping.

He became aware of a pair of hands holding the sopping hair out of his face, gasped in several times, then gathered a fistful of mud and whipped around, smashing his saviour right in his eye. Roxas' head rocked back on his neck, but other than that, the blond gave no acknowledgement to the fact that he'd just been punched. Face dripping grit, he lowered his chin and asked calmly, "Are you done now? Is it all up?"

With a low, enraged scream, Axel leapt at him, knuckles flying, feet kicking, slamming him onto his back in the muck. He attacked his face, clawed at his ears, wrapped his fingers around his throat and  _crushed._

Roxas, who had lain still and accepted his punishment up til then, rolled back onto his shoulders, popping his feet up into the redhead's stomach and, with their joint momentum, flung him over his head and onto drier land. Axel thudded to a stop against a large slab of rock, pawing at his eyes as dust invaded them, only managing to smear the hundreds of grains further across his face until there was no escape.

Sighing heavily, Roxas knelt beside him, grabbed hold of both his wrists and tightened his grip warningly. "Stop," he said firmly, as Axel went still. "You're making things worse. I'll do it."

"Do  _what?"_ the redhead demanded in a voiceless hiss. "Try to kill me again?" When no answer was forthcoming, Axel slumped, jerked his hands free and dragged them through his saturated hair, feeling the water squeeze down his back. "You said you wouldn't lead me into danger. Gave me your  _word._ You're just… like all the rest of them," he denounced shakily. "I haven't even  _done_ anything  _wrong."_

Roxas took hold of his chin, held up one remarkably clean hand, and started to quickly and efficiently scrape the sand out of his eyes. "…I'm not," he said quietly, as Axel shivered wildly with the cool night air flowing over him. "I only did it to save you."

The redhead let loose a cracked, hysterical laugh. "Save me?  _Save?_ Is that what you had in mind,  _when you left me in the middle of the swamp to drown?"_ The last part was choked through clenched teeth, burning with anger and betrayal, increasing the way he trembled.

Roxas, twisting his hand into his shirt, lifting it up and gently wiping at Axel's eyes, replied simply, "Yes." As Axel blinked clumsily through the various grains still inhabiting his eyelids, he added, "Because anything is better than being stuck here forever."

Chest puffing and deflating broadly as he continued to regain his breath, Axel stared in perplexity, until his eyes began to sting again. "If you feel that strongly about this place, why don't you just kill  _your_ self, and leave getting the fuck outta here to those of us who want to  _try?"_

Roxas gave a bitter smile, cupping Axel's chin, tipping his head to the side. "Don't you think I've tried?" As the redhead fell silent, expression dropping, Roxas continued, "Death is the perfect escape from this nightmare – I try to save those that I can, because I know what it  _is_ to truly suffer it." Pressing his warm forehead to Axel's icy one, he breathed, "I can  _never_ leave." Their noses touched. "I'll be honest, though… I really didn't want to do it. The thought of having you around all the time, a cat like me… I could have company, for once…"

"I could end up like Naminé, you mean?" Axel asked, voice low and fierce. Roxas blinked, sighed against his mouth and drew away warily.

"You – saw Naminé?"

"I'm surprised you didn't hear her," the redhead responded coldly. "After all, she was trying to call for  _you."_

Roxas was quiet for several moments, before ducking his head slightly. "Maybe you see, then, why I tried to do what I did."

"… _Jesus,_ Roxas," Axel groaned, lifting a hand to wipe down his face.

Roxas snatched it a bare second before he could, saying, "Ah, no! Your hands are still dirty!"

Axel paused, looked at the blond's smaller hands wrapped around his wrist, then over into the earnest, blue eyes directly across from his, blond brows drawn down in a show of concern. For a long moment, they stared at one another, Axel's arm relaxing in his grasp. "…If I hadn't called to you," he asked softly, intently, "would you have saved me anyway?"

Roxas held his gaze steadily, saying nothing for several heartbeats. Then, "No." As Axel's eyes cut away, expression flattening, Roxas tightened his hold on his tugging wrist. "But, since you brought it up… you owe me my payment."

Axel choked, looked back at him sharply, disbelieving. "You can't be serious."

Roxas intoned, "Three saves for three kisses."

Teeth gnashing, the redhead growled, "Well, how about we  _don't_ kiss, and you can take your next save and shove it up your ass? Consider our deal done with."

Rapidly, Roxas countered, "That can't be done. You break our deal, and you end up back in the swamp. We're on the opposite shore right now, Axel, and it really was a shortcut – the palace is just over the next rise. If you don't pay me, though, whether I want it or not, you'll be right back where you started. Or – where you were finishing, as it were."

Sucking a sudden breath, eyes widening, Axel stared for a moment, then shouted, "What the fuck kind of rule is that?!"

"It's no rule," the blond shrugged. "It's just magic. It's just the way the agreement works. The only reason I saved you at  _all_  is because I'm bound to it – just like you're bound to paying me for my services."

"So now I have to kiss you?" the redhead demanded.

Eyes narrowing, Roxas replied stiffly, "It doesn't need to be too much of one, if the idea disgusts you so much."

"Oh, I'm sorry that the idea of making out with my would-be  _murderer_ doesn't turn me on more," came the whiplash response. Then Axel sliced a hand through the air, saying, "You know what? Fuck it. Fine. If it means I  _survive_ this bullshit, I'll kiss you." In chilly tones, he added, as the blond started to lean forward, "But  _only_ because I want to survive."

Roxas hesitated, then sat back, eyes becoming hooded. Leaning back against the tall rock, he straightened his legs out and flatly commanded, "In that case – give me my payment. I'm waiting."

Axel scowled at the sudden change in his attitude – as if  _he_ were the one being wronged! – and, determined to come out of this the better man, stoically crawled forward. Shoving his way between Roxas' legs, forcing them to bend so that he could settle more comfortably, he glared at the expressionless blond, who merely rested against the stone and waited.

Sighing shortly, Axel flattened a damp hand on the rock either side of his head and leaned forward. Evidently feeling difficult, Roxas shifted his face slightly to the side, forcing Axel to come after him. When the redhead growled, he quickly twisted his head the other way, avoiding him a second time.

Axel dug his fingers into the soft flesh of Roxas' jaw, grip and eyes steely as he grated, "Hold. Still. And let me. Pay you." Not giving the blond a chance to play any further games, he swiftly pressed their mouths together. It was a dry, close-mouthed exchange, Axel taking no pleasure from it, just holding his lips there until he felt a proper amount of time had elapsed during which neither of them made any move to deepen it.

Readying to pull back, he relaxed his grip on Roxas' chin, started to withdraw. In the moment he felt it happening, however, the blond's arms snaked up, looped hard around Axel's neck, and jerked him back before he could disconnect, mouth suddenly opening, tongue coming out to press against the seam of the redhead's stubborn lips. Frowning fiercely at him, Axel made a muffled noise of protest, which Roxas completely ignored. Holding him tighter, hooking his ankles behind the tall man's back, he clutched Axel and refused to let go until he'd got some form of decent response.

Huffing an impatient sigh through his nose, eyes rolling, Axel resentfully submitted to the insistence of the tongue seeking entrance. Instantly, the pressure that Roxas was applying to every section of him eased, as they joined at the mouth, lips smacking quietly. Even now, however, Axel was pissed enough to maintain a sense of detachment, allowing Roxas all the control, not bothering to inject anything of his own into the union. Frustrated, Roxas grunted, then sucked his bottom lip into his mouth and bit down, aggravating the cuts, cleaning away the old blood.

Eyes flaring wide, a breath sucking in as an electric bolt shot through his nerves, Axel slackened in his grasp. Roxas' hands shifted up to the sides of his face, teeth releasing his lip, pulling him ever deeper into the kiss.

At last, reluctance becoming hazy, beginning to fade from his mind, the redhead started taking some initiative, employing Roxas' tongue and mouth with more independence. Humming his approval, the blond relaxed against the stone, wrapping his arms more securely around Axel's shoulders, prolonging the kiss as much as possible, kneading the back of his neck. Axel shivered, fingers sinking into his sides, giving himself over, eyes sliding shut.

He tasted teeth and saliva and Roxas and a hint of the swamp; he tasted sweetness and desperation, all of it combining into a heady mixture designed to trap the senses and pin them down. He sank against Roxas heavily, massaging his sides through his shirt, the blond whimpering at the touch. A second later, his long tail wrapped around Axel's waist, the redhead shuddering slightly, reaching around to grab it and drag his nails through the fur. He swallowed a purr from Roxas' mouth, grinning slightly.

When eventually the amount of oxygen being inhaled through their noses wasn't enough, they broke apart panting. Axel realised with dismay that he wouldn't be allowed to touch Roxas' lips again, not until something life-threatening happened along that he couldn't get himself out of. Almost groaning at the loss, he dropped his face into the stretch of flesh between Roxas' neck and shoulder and kissed at it, peppering butterfly-soft touches up and down the pale column of his throat.

Roxas copied the movement, burying his nose into the corner of Axel's neck, eyelashes fluttering at the redhead's ministrations, before sucking a breath, spreading his slick tongue along the rope of muscle that he found there, and sinking his teeth into it.

Axel's moan echoed briefly through the trees, Roxas pushing his advantage, hands sliding up under his sodden shirt and starting to play with the hardened nubs of the redhead's nipples.  _"Holy… shit,"_ Axel gasped, arching into his touch, unwittingly grinding their hips together, causing each of them to let loose strangled, pleasured grunts. Panting into his ear, twitching and writhing as Roxas continued to play with his body, Axel asked, "What's – this about? This – nnh – meant to be your… apology?"

Roxas breathed a laugh, sucking briefly on the lobe of his ear, nibbling along its soft shell. "Hardly," he muttered, pushing up against the redhead's crotch, eliciting another erotic noise from his lips. "This is my parting gift to you. Xemnas is going to kill you." With this, he rolled his hips into Axel's a third time, finding a patch of untouched skin on his throat and starting to suck at it ardently.

Axel's eyelids flickered once, twice, three times with a groan, and then suddenly he forced his hands against Roxas' chest and shoved, hard enough to knock the breath out of Roxas and send himself tumbling onto his back in the dirt.

For a while, there was stunned silence, broken only by heavy breaths. Then Roxas demanded, "What? What the fuck?"

Pressing the heels of his palms against his sweaty forehead, Axel gazed up at the leafy sky and sighed, "I could ask the same of you." He levered up onto his elbows, eyeing the blond's self-righteous indignation. "Fuck you, Roxas," he said wearily. "You're  _so sure_ I'm not gonna live to see the sunrise. I don't need goddamn…  _pity_ sex."

"It's not pity sex," the blond argued fiercely. "I told you, it's a parting gift. It's me giving something to you because you deserve it, not because I feel sorry for you."

"I deserve sex? Why, because I was such a brave boy all day?" Axel suddenly snorted, muttered, "What the hell am I saying, I deserve a freaking  _harem_ after everything I went through today." He pushed himself up to sit cross-legged, glaring at the boy. "Just – okay,  _look._ You can stop looking at me like  _I'm_ the bad guy in all this, and get used to the fact that I don't go in for 'last fucking meal' fucking, okay? If we were a couple and I was going away on a  _business trip_ tomorrow morning, sure, I'd chain you to the nearest bedpost and not let you go until five minutes before the plane was due to take off – but if you're just looking to lay me because this time tomorrow I won't be kicking at  _all,_ you can  _shove it."_ Unhappily, he rose to his feet, uselessly trying to brush himself off. "I am – I'm  _not_ doing this with you. You can't just go from… trying to kill me, to trying to screw me because you think it's the last happy sensation I'll ever get, okay?" He straightened, levelled his shoulders defiantly. "I'll prove it to you. I'll  _live,_ goddamn it, and then you'll  _see_ I didn't need your pity sex."

Groaning, Roxas repeated, "But it's  _not –"_

"Forget it, Roxas." Axel's voice was quiet, but firm. His green eyes were calm in the moonlight, as he looked down at where the blond remained sitting against the rock. "I'm telling you right now, I don't want or need it. I don't plan on sticking around this place any longer that I have to, and I tell you what – the second I get out, I'll nail the first blond, blue-eyed guy I come across in gratitude."

Mouth twisting down at the corners, Roxas said softly, "But it won't be  _me,_ because I'll still be trapped down here." He looked up beseechingly. "Axel, all I wanted… was to –"

Axel held up a hand, forestalling his words. "Whatever either of us wants," he said heavily, "will have to take a backseat, Rox. Your King wants to speak to me, right? And I want to get the hell out of here before something happens to lock me in. Maybe you want a cat-boy friend to keep you company… but that's not exactly fair on  _me,_ is it?"

Drawing his knees up to his chest, Roxas wrapped his arms around them, tucked his cheek against one, lowered his gaze to the ground and muttered, "No."

"…Well, then," Axel said, as if this settled the discussion. His hands, dangling loosely by his sides, came up bunch his hair into a brief ponytail, squeezing out the last of the marsh water as best as he could, a useless effort considering the rest of his appearance. "I'm not exactly fit for royal viewing," he sighed distastefully, looking down at his bedraggled, mud-caked, bare-foot state. "But it'll have to do." He looked over at Roxas, spread his arms, and asked, "So, where am I going to see this guy?"

Breathing in a sigh, the blond quietly lifted an arm, and pointed beyond him. "Over that way. Past the hill. Just keep going, and you'll be there before you know it."

Axel turned, squinting through the darkness. "Ah. Okay. That sounds… surprisingly easy." Frowning, he twisted back, suspicion creeping across his expression.

Before he could voice any doubts, Roxas said, "I'm not lying, and I'm not trying to kill you again." He shrugged slightly. "I had my chance, and I blew it. In more than one way, it feels like." Not looking up, he added, "Whatever happens to you from here is your own business."

Axel studied him for a moment. "You're – not coming with me?"

"Have I ever?" Roxas countered. He shook his head, drawing further into himself. "I'll just do like I always do in situations like these," he mumbled. "Stay on the sidelines, and be helpless."

For a long minute, Axel stayed where he was. Yes, he desperately wanted to leave this hellish forest; yes, he wanted to get this entire 'King' thing the fuck over with – but something, some part of Roxas, was holding him back. He wanted to say something to the cat-boy, whose ears and tail, once something to gape about, had become almost commonplace by now. He wanted to say  _something_ … but he just – didn't know quite what. He didn't know if thanks were in order, or good-byes, and he didn't think he wanted to ask if they were going to see each other again after this, if Roxas would be waiting at the exit to shake his hand and wish him well.

So instead of saying something, Axel said nothing. He turned his back on the blond, bare feet virtually silent compared to when he'd crunched across the miles in his long-gone sneakers, and walked away. He left the wetlands further and further behind, mounting the rising hill, weaving slowly through the trees that dotted it.

At no point did Roxas try and give chase.

Halfway up, Axel couldn't help but pause and glance back down… but Roxas, as half-expected, was gone. He didn't stick around, it seemed, unless there was something in it for him. Well, that was fine. Axel was pretty much the same way. That was why he was planning to get out of this place as soon as possible, and never,  _never_ look back.

He just hoped the tingling of his lips, from their latest kiss, would die down soon, make it easier to forget that it had ever happened in the first place. There was no room for guilt right now, or wishful thinking. Axel had to be  _focused._

Astoundingly – ridiculously – as Axel approached the peak, he saw the sun doing the same over on the horizon. Despite the fact that only a couple hours had passed since it had gone down, it was attempting to rise again. This place – it obeyed no laws of logic, did it? Absolutely none.

Fine, then. If it wanted to be dawn, then it could be dawn. It didn't matter either way to Axel; in fact, it'd probably make things easier, in the long run. At least he could see a little better now, with the edge of the world lit up silver and gold.

He finally reached the apex of the hill, the forest thinning out around him, and, as promised, in the distance he saw what had to be the palace Roxas had mentioned – not that it was looking particularly palace-like. More like a tower, stabbing skyward. But then, it wasn't like that didn't fit in with the rest of the scheme of things – he figured that whoever was running this place didn't go in for conformity much.

Inhaling deeply, lips thinning, face hardening determinedly, Axel gazed at the looming, pitch-black tower, then started down the other side of the hill, gripping the belt-loops of his mud-heavy pants. This was it, then. After everything he'd gone through, he was finally where he needed to be. His entire purpose in this goddamn forest was to be _here,_ to find this stupid monarch and answer his questions. What he hoped to learn from  _Axel,_ the redhead wasn't entirely sure. After all, they already had fire-starting  _more_ than covered in their general knowledge, and he didn't think there was a hell of a lot else in his brain that was worth offering, in terms of valid information.

He reached the bottom of the incline twenty minutes later, entering directly into what had to be the palace grounds, considering the amount of tall, perfectly trimmed hedges that had suddenly sprung into being, littered with roses, perfect hearts having been shorn out from the leaves every several feet.

Axel continued with cautiousness, following the long, slender path that lead straight through the middle of the hedges, despite the many openings that branched off, maze-like. There was absolutely no temptation to explore – Axel wanted to get in, and get out, in that order. This was  _not_ the time to regress into childhood and start poking around.

As he went, he began to notice red splotches dotting the grass here and there, looking sickeningly reminiscent of... "Blood?" he murmured, stomach contracting. He hesitated, glanced around, wondering if someone had been hurt recently. However, a flash of motion caught his eye, and, frowning deeply, he went to one of the red roses adorning the hedge, bent slightly and stared intently. As he watched, a new bead of red formed at the base of one petal, trickled down slowly, and shivered on its edge.

Axel caught it with a finger, held up the shining, quivering bead, studied it closely. He flattened it with his thumb, rubbing it until it thinned and grew sticky. Reluctantly, he lifted it to his nose and sniffed.

Oh, hell, it  _was_  blood.

Gasping quietly, he scrubbed his hand rapidly against his shirt, leaving a slight stain behind, feeling pale all of a sudden. He stepped back abruptly from the flower, utterly bewildered, only to find, as he looked up and down the hedge, that  _all_ of them were doing it. The roses – the roses were  _bleeding._

"That is – so messed up, I don't even know where to  _start,"_ the redhead muttered frantically, struggling to control the gag reflex in his throat. Gulping in a few stabilising breaths, he shut his eyes for a moment, trying to not see flecks of red behind his lids.

He continued walking, not waiting to calm down, opening his eyes again and keeping his gaze centred, focused on the prize at the end of the road, the tower at the end of the maze. He swallowed constantly, staving off the horrifying notion that he could  _smell_ the blood. Oh, no, he most certainly  _could not._ No way. Whatever scent these roses had, it  _was not going to be blood._ He was just – his imagination was running away with him. His… olfactory imagination. Yeah.

He started running, feet crushing the grass in the dawn silence, eyes trained on the palace and hoping to God someone would be awake when he got there.  
Just as he arrived, clutching for air, heart going at a panicked thunder as if all the monsters of the world were snapping at his heels, darkness exploded in front of him, a swirling, black-purple vortex that seemed almost to consume the nearby light, spreading poisonous tendrils curling through the air. In the next second, someone stepped out of it.

Axel stumbled to a halt, fists jumping up automatically at the sight of the long black coat, hood up for the first time in his experience, completely obscuring the wearer's face from view. He eyed the figure off, chest heaving, gaze darting. "What do you want?" he demanded in a loud wheeze. "Leave me alone, I'm here to see the King!"

The man in the coat laughed quietly, an almost polite sound, folding his hands together behind his back. "Actually, you are here to see the Superior," he corrected in a husky, refined voice. "The King of Hearts has been… shall we say,  _out of commission,_ for quite some time now. Xemnas oversees this place these days. He has been waiting for you, Axel."

The redhead shook his head sharply to clear it. "Wait, you're saying that the King  _doesn't_ want to talk to me? Like, at all? It's – that Xemnas guy?"

"The Superior, yes," the genteel-sounding man agreed. "But, please, where are my manners? Do come in, before we begin discussing just why you're here, or whom to see." Axel leapt back a step as he came forward, causing the man to hesitate, head tilting inquisitively to one side. "You  _are_ here to see the Superior, aren't you? And it looks like your journey has been long and hard, at best…" He gestured a gloved hand to Axel's filthiness, the redhead glancing down and back up with a hint of despair.

"…Okay," he agreed heavily, and, after a moment's uncertainty, he moved reluctantly to meet the man, who so far seemed to be the most sane one of these black-coat guys that he'd come across.

"Very good," came the response, a thin smile evident in his tone. As Axel came within range, he glanced nervously at the nefarious-looking portal that continued to swirl and lick at reality's edges.

"Just please tell me I don't have to – " he started to ask unsurely, cut off abruptly as the man's hand wrapped with sudden, cruel tightness around his upper arm. "Hey, ow!"

"See you there," the black figure said dryly, and, too weak to fight more than perfunctorily, the redhead was tossed into darkness. It swallowed him up without a second's pause.

For a while, Axel ceased to exist, aside from noisy breaths and a heartbeat. It was like – losing his mind. Like falling, and never having a place to land, not even to impact and die. There was no sensation of motion, no heat, no cold, no feeling at all. It was a thousand times worse than any pain he'd ever endured, any sadness, any depression or anger. This was… hopelessness, embodied. He was just a mind, a gasping, displaced brain hurtling at zero miles an hour through  _nothing._

And in the next, timeless moment, he was just a thin, exhausted, nauseous man on his knees in the dirt, coughing at the bile searing his throat, nails digging hard into the rocky earth. Struggling on the brink of hyperventilation, every particle his body throbbing at triple speed, he raised his eyes, looked about wildly at suddenly new surroundings, back in the darkness of night.

Just as he was getting ready to curse anew at time's fancy-fucking-free attitude when it came to the sun, getting ready to have a panic attack and freak out in the aftermath of such hideous, nightmarish trauma… he realised, as the world came sharply into focus, that he knew this place.

He was somewhere… familiar again. And – to be honest, it wasn't the party he'd thought it would be.

He was – back in the circus.

All hysteria was put on hold, dying down into coldness as he slowly, achingly pushed his way up from the ground to his feet, absently brushing his hands against his mud-caked jeans.

"…What?"

His voice, soft though it was, almost seemed to echo, bouncing off of invisible barriers, shaking its way into a different plane of existence. Axel held his breath, eyebrows drawing together in consternation as he gazed steadily around, hands tucking anxiously across his chest and under his biceps. He shivered a little, though the air was still, turning in place, taking in the dead-looking, silent showgrounds.

There were lights on, but only a few of them, only enough to be able to barely see. He was in – the sideshow area, where the games and rides were set up. All the stalls were empty and dark, but the two carousels were lit up like Christmas, the static horses with their mouths open around their bridles, looking like someone had set off a series of firecrackers, terrified them into flight, and then photographed them. Trapped their souls. The fact that their paint was old and chipped was a relief to Axel's tight chest – it was proof they weren't real, and never had been. Right now… he didn't think he could be sure of anything.

Swallowing unevenly, eyes darting, he started moving, an awkward, uncertain shuffle over the brutally short grass and underlying dirt. His mind raced as he tried to remember where the exit was – if – if this was  _really_ the circus… then that meant he was out of the forest. Close to town. If he could only skirt his way around the edges, find the way out… then it would be over. He could – run, all the way home, heedless of bleeding bare feet over bitumen, and just… hide himself away in the apartment forever after.

He didn't question the fact of  _how_  he was here at all _–_ he just hoped the luck would hold, that this wouldn't all end up being an elaborate illusion to leave him broken inside.

Picking up speed, he made his way along the alley of game booths, glancing at the silent prizes, the glassy eyes of the plushies seeming to stare, giving a wide berth to the frozen, gaping clown-heads waiting to choke down ping-pong balls, finding them too unnerving to look at for any length of time. He passed the popcorn wagon, the candy-floss vendor where he'd spent four bucks in what felt like another lifetime, the hotdog stand with the skanky wares, all utterly abandoned, and somehow scentless despite their usual all-encompassing quality.

Wary, jumpy from the continuing ghost-town feel of the place, Axel hurried through the last of the sideshows, left them behind and entered into the empty petting zoo. There were short, straw-filled stalls set up in two rows, but, though a faint mustiness hung in the air, there were no animals to be seen. The last time he'd walked this place, there had been pigs, a couple of goats and sheep, some weary-looking chickens fluffing their feathers and making low, soft noises. He wondered briefly where they had all got to, almost worrying for them. After all, they were only livestock – it wasn't like they could look out for themselves, especially not with the lions nearby, pacing their cages.

Finally, as if some kind of pièce de résistance was being thrown his way, Axel entered the caged-animal area, and slowly… stopped… walking.

The cages, unlike the rest of the circus, were actually occupied.

The cages, unlike the rest of the circus, had people in them.

People like Roxas, like Naminé.

He stepped into their midst with wonder and disbelief, wide eyes skating over the many forms that had been packed into them. Most inhabitants were sleeping, but some remained awake, sitting up in the hay, not bothering to speak to one another, barely even glancing Axel's way as he paced hesitantly past them.

There was something – hollow about their features. Like they'd spent the last ten years of their lives inside the darkness that had so leeched the spirit out of Axel himself while he'd been in it. They all wore ears and tails of some description, ranging in a wide variety of species, both mammalian and occasionally reptile. It was… hideous. They were grey, thin, trapped, and Axel was their only witness.

Jesus, it had been bad enough when they were  _regular_ animals. This – this was like some kind of living  _nightmare._

Towards the end of the row of cages, barred, peeling carriages that could easily be hooked together and towed by a tractor, Axel saw his first sign that the pathetic creatures still had some life left in them: Two men were sitting playing cards, a blond and a brunet, both bearing the unmistakable likenesses of lions. Their hair was slightly shaggier than usual, faintly resembling ruffs. They were older than Axel, looking to be in their mid-to-late twenties, both focused intently on the card game.

As the redhead couldn't help but approach, he caught a glimpse of three others within the same small holding cell. A woman with long black hair and speckled cat's ears, pointier than Roxas', was fast asleep with her head on the knee of the blond man, while over against the wall, a short, dark-haired, dog-eared girl lay curled against the hip of a tattooed, red-haired man of similar species, only with slightly rougher-looking fur.

Axel reached the bars, staying a wary foot back, and watched the two awake ones playing for a minute, before the brown-haired lion-man shifted his right hand quickly, murmuring, "Snap." The blond's arm jerked a split-second later, reflexes just the slightest bit too slow, a defeated sigh escaping his lips.

"I'll get them back the next turn."

"Visitor," the brunet grunted, picking up the mess of discarded winnings and adding them to his deck, beginning to shuffle swiftly and expertly.

The blond nodded, turned to Axel, said, "The palace is just up ahead. They'll be waiting for you."

The redhead blinked, features suddenly freezing. "Wait – what? The – palace?" Feeling like someone had cracked an icy egg over his head and was drooling the innards down his back, he watched the blond man nod, small, stiff, round ears remaining still in the chaos of his spiky hair.

"Keep your voice down," he advised flatly, gesturing with his head to the sleepers.

Glancing over at the other inhabitants, the redhead moved quickly to the bars, wrapped his hands around them, whispered insistently, "But – this is the  _circus._ There's no palace here!"

The man shrugged. "Think what you want. Either way, Xemnas and the others are in the main pavilion, expecting you any minute now." Axel stared helplessly, mind grinding to a halt, just about sagging against the bars.

"Then – I'm nowhere near home yet, am I?"

The blond licked his lips impatiently, checking quickly on his playing partner's progress, but the man had apparently chosen to undergo several different shuffling methods, carefully not looking up as he separated the deck. Sky-blue eyes turned back to Axel, and the redhead thought there was the smallest hint of pity in their depths. "Listen, what's your name?"

"…Axel," he said miserably. The blond nodded.

"I'm Cloud. My friend here is Leon." The brunet grunted faint acknowledgement. "When –  _if_ things don't turn out, we'll make sure you're taken care of, in whichever carriage you end up in, okay? We can't guarantee much more than that. Sorry."

Scowling, pressing his forehead against the cold bars, Axel moaned quietly, "God, you're showing as much faith in me as Roxas."

Cloud's gaze sharpened, Leon's cutting up a second later, their storm-grey depths expressing shock. "…You've met Roxas?" the brunet asked.

Axel sighed. "Yeah. I met him." Emotions battled in those few words. He wondered, with a sudden stab, if he really had walked away from the cat-boy for the last time, without even saying goodbye.

Squinting at him, Cloud clarified, "You've met Roxas… but you're still  _here?"_

The redhead frowned for a moment. "…Where else would I be?" When the men exchanged uneasy glances, a scowl formed over Axel's face like gathering clouds. "Oh. I think I see. What, am I more suited to the bottom of a  _swamp?"_  When they blinked, startled, he stepped back and gestured down at himself. "Been there, done that," he said gruffly. "Lucky me, I had a couple kisses left in stock."

If possible, the two men's eyes widened even further. "…Roxas – offered you three saves for three kisses, didn't he?" Leon said dimly. He and Cloud looked at each other for a long moment, Axel seeing pain flash through the features of the blond.

"Yeah," the redhead answered slowly. "What of it?"

Cloud swallowed, lowered his gaze, shook his head slightly and muttered, "Wow, he must really like you."

Leon scrutinised Axel, showing more interest in the proceedings all of a sudden. "He probably didn't tell you this, but you should know – if you end up trapped here, the pair of you will be bound into cages like ours for all of eternity. Or at least, that's what they say."

"It's true," Cloud said softly. He looked up at Axel from an angle, some rough flaxen spikes falling across his face. "It happened to us. Leon gave me my three saves, and in the end, I still failed. He bound himself to me with it, hoping to rescue me – but, after everything, I doomed us to this prison for the rest of – well, forever. I became a lion like him, and we haven't been out of the circus since then." His eyes closed briefly. "I don't even know… how long it's been. But I suppose it doesn't matter."

Axel's gaze flicked from one to the other, disquiet gradually building as the blond related their tale. "So, wait… You're saying that – if I fuck up, Roxas and me both get tossed into cages? I'll become a cat like him, and we'll be stuck here?"

Leon shrugged faintly. "Seems like that's the choice Roxas made."

"That idiot," Cloud grated. He glared at Leon hotly. "He's an  _idiot._ He could have spent his life in the forest, not free but freer than  _this –_ but instead, he's given it all up for some  _guy,_ completely on a whim."

Again, Leon shrugged. "These things happen. When you've lived in stasis for a few decades or centuries, whims can take you by storm." The air rumbled with the growl of the lion Cloud claimed to be. Leon shot him a firm, patient look. "The others," he reminded gently, the blond glancing down in frustration at the woman against his leg.

Then, blue eyes burning, Cloud turned to Axel and hissed, "You've completely destroyed what small hope of escape Roxas ever had. When it happens, it'll be all your fault. Congratulations."

As he twisted his face away, refusing to look at the redhead anymore, Axel reeled under the venom of the assault. Then Leon, acting like a balm over a wound, calmly said, "You're the first person to survive Roxas, you know. It's been a while since I saw him, but last I knew, he was leading as many unsuspecting interlopers to their deaths as possible, to save them from this." He flicked a casual hand at their surroundings, the darkness, the bars. "Since we ended up here, there's been several people come in, but none of them had ever heard of Roxas. No one that meets Roxas makes it this far, I think." He studied Axel for a long, silent moment, before concluding thoughtfully, "Cloud's right – he must really like you." As the redhead grappled with this new information, so much clearer and more reasonable-sounding than the version Roxas had given him back in the woods, when Axel had been busy trying to beat him to a pulp, Leon sighed through his nose, gave a small smile. "You should go, Axel." He straightened the cards in his broad palms, slid the top one off the deck and flipped it crisply onto the brushed-clean patch of wood. "The sooner you get this over with, the sooner you find out if you and Roxas end up here with us – or if you maybe end up free."

Mouth dry, pulse thumping, Axel croaked, "Who ends up going free, if we don't turn up back here? Just me, or both of us?"

Leon paused, Cloud going still, though his face remained averted. After a moment's consideration, the brunet confessed, "I don't know. No one's ever made it that far."

Axel bit his lip, winced at the cuts he disturbed. Agitated, somehow a hell of a lot more concerned and frazzled than he'd been  _before_  he talked to them, he stepped away from the cage. Leon inclined his head over to the left. "Just keep going, Axel. It'll all be over soon enough."

The redhead nodded distantly, eyes dragging over to where he'd pointed, apprehension at an all-time high. Then, Cloud muttered, "Good luck, kid." His attention was focused on his cards, as he placed one down, glowering hard at the nine of clubs, but he'd definitely said. Axel hesitated, nodded even though the man couldn't see it, and turned, venturing silently on into the night.

He left the cages behind, tried to put their sad occupants out of his mind, and really – really  _concentrate_ on the moment.

Who knew… it might be the last time he could walk around freely like this.

 _Bad thought, bad thought,_ he silently reprimanded, features arranging into a stubborn scowl as he passed over the butchered grass, steps taking him inevitably towards the only damn place that was left around here – the main arena, the enormous pavilion within which, in another slice of space and time, a show had once been put on to entertain people. It hadn't been the best, and the clowns had been creepy-looking, but in the here and now, any menace they might have once held for Axel seemed shallow and ridiculous. So they didn't know how to appeal to the public properly, someone in charge had a twisted idea of how a circus should be – who the fuck really cared?

The fact remained that Axel had been able to get up and leave. He had left at the end of the night, and if he hadn't gone kitten-hunting, he'd, right this second, already be back in bed and content.

Of course, the closer he got to the darkened tent flaps, the more he began to wonder if that hadn't been the entire purpose of the place to begin with… ensnaring unsuspecting customers… What the fuck kind of circus was this, anyway, that it could turn into some dark little trap when everyone went home?

More to the point – what was going to be waiting for him when he  _entered_ the arena?

Steeling himself, he crept cautiously towards the entrance, hovering unhappily in place, swallowing and glancing back the way he'd come. The temptation was strong, at this point, to just turn around and bolt for it.  _Find_ an exit, the  _real_ exit – make one, if necessary, tear through the temporary fence that had been set up, throw himself over the barbed wire and deal with the consequences once he was out.

But…  _Roxas…_

Roxas had risked his freedom for him? Was – that really what he'd done? And, even though he'd tried to kill Axel at the last minute, he'd followed through on his promise. He'd saved him, even though it meant he risked becoming trapped, like Leon and Cloud. But then, at the same time, hadn't he actually expressed a desire for company? He'd almost sounded like he  _wanted_ Axel to end up being stuck, in turn becoming trapped himself, just – because – he wanted a friend? Because he liked him?

Was it really that lonely for the blond?

…And if Axel played his cards right, could he actually possibly win freedom for them both? There was no guarantee of what would happen if he tried to run, and so far no one worth listening to had suggested that he try. It had always just been about getting there, and finding out his fate. Talking to the King, and hoping to hell that afterwards he'd be somehow supercalifragilistic-expialidociously transported back home.

Before he'd reached the end of this thread of thought, before he decided one way or another between taking  _any_ particular course of action, there was a sudden explosion of light and pale blue smoke not six feet away, directly in front of the pavilion's entrance. Hissing and leaping back, nowhere to hide but trying anyway, Axel threw himself to the ground, terrified that it was another portal forming, the thought of having to endure such madness again enough to strip him of his wits.

In the next moment, however, he paused, eyes popping wide as he recognised the shape emerging – or, at least, recognised by name, by description. An old man with a white beard stepped free of the rapidly fading sparks and fog, dressed in a long blue robe and a pointed hat. First thought: court magician.

Second thought: White Rabbit. The man's startlingly pale ears extended high into the air, soft and delicate, if somewhat patchy with age. They twitched and swivelled almost as if independent entities to the rest of his body, seeming to virtually sniff the air, if in an entirely ear-like fashion. The man himself was toting a heavy carry-bag and a large golden pocket-watch, which he paused to check before entering the arena.

"Oh, dear," Axel heard him mutter. "I am running quite, quite late." Then he shrugged bony shoulders, gathered up the chain and tucked the watch away. "Well, at least I got here before the guest of honour. By the way," he added, raising his quavering voice, "you'll get nothing achieved laying about in the dirt, lad. All good things must come to end, etcetera, et al." Without even glancing towards the redhead, he straightened his spine, threw his straggly beard over one shoulder, and strode confidently into the tent.

Axel gaped for a moment, chin an inch off the dust, eyes slowly scanning the area. What…? That had been the White Rabbit, without a doubt. The one that the Riku twins had advised him to ask for, when he was seeking out Roxas. So – had they known he would end up here, then? Was that why? Had they realised what was going on, and just directed him to where they knew it would all end up going down?

Holy freaking premonition, Batman.

Sighing hard into the grass, Axel levered himself up, climbed to his feet, dithered for another minute before, with no other viable options ahead, shifting over towards the tent flaps. He approached at an angle, hoping to remain unseen until absolutely necessary, trusting no one and nothing. The closer he got, though, the more abandoned the place seemed. He could hear nothing coming from the pavilion, and neither was there any light shining forth. The whole massive tent was dark and silent, and he could only wonder if there were more black-clad figures on the other side, possibly toting baseball bats and getting ready to pound him into bloody, toothless oblivion.

He supposed it was just… the sort of risk he was going to have to take.

Sucking in a breath, counting to ten, at first slowly and then in a rapid jumble of numbers, Axel squeezed his eyes shut, and sprang forward into the arena.

When he opened his eyes, he was in an entirely new setting.

White was the first thing that struck him; blazing white, from here to eternity, searing his retinas, brighter than stars. After the darkness of the circus grounds, he was forced to cover his poor, abused eyes, pressing his fingertips into his sockets and grunting at the explosive presence.

"Ah… Axel, is it?" a smooth voice greeted coolly. "At last you arrive. We have been expecting you for some time now."

Stiffening, the redhead ceased all motion. He slowly, carefully lifted his head from its cowering position and removed his hands, blinking sightlessly for a moment, once again seeing nothing but the endless white. There was no sign of any speaker.

"Up here, please," came the efficient, clipped tones of the old man from before. Axel raised his eyes, and felt his blood chill.

Evidently, he had made it inside the black tower that jutted above the maze-hedges and their bleeding roses – the place he was in was impossible high, cylindrical, as bleached on the inside as it was charred on the outside. And there, way above him, in ascending order until reaching the very topmost, were a series of raised thrones, a black-clad figure perched upon each column.

Standing on a small platform to the right of the highest chair, beside the stiff-postured man that sat there, was the White Rabbit, adjusting little half-moon glasses on the bridge of his nose, unfurling a long scroll of parchment from his bag. A small, black-feathered quill rose by itself as he held the parchment up, and began writing as he announced, "Ah – you find yourself in the High Court of the King – that is to say, his chief advisor, Superior Xemnas. Please state your name and business."

Axel stood there, far below, and stared dumbly. To be honest, his eyes were still adjusting. It helped to gape at the black figures – the contrast they introduced lessened the strain.

The bearded man was unimpressed with his tactics, it seemed. He harrumphed, then repeated himself with greater volume, "Please, guest of the Superior, state your name and your business here."

For a moment, the redhead spluttered, mouth opening and closing. One of the black figures leaned over and muttered something to his partner, who sniggered audibly. Axel was – violently sure he recognised the voice. He just couldn't remember yet which heinous section of the last twenty-four hours it had tormented him during.

Eventually, he managed, "G-guest?" His voice echoed within the tower's confines. "I'm meant to be a  _guest_ here? You've got to be kidding me," he muttered, words bouncing all too audibly up. He grappled with this notion silently for several moments, before yelling,  _"I don't feel very guest-like!"_ Glaring up at the black-coated figures, he demanded in a snarl, "If I'm supposed to be a guest here, where the fuck are my mini-soaps and shampoos? Where was my bed, when I was trying to sleep in the middle of the forest?  _Where was my complimentary fucking breakfast, for the twenty minutes that it was actually dawn?"_

Silence of the stunned variety drifted down to meet him, before the second topmost figure – definitely recognised to be the soft-voiced greeter from outside the tower – uttered, "Do you know to whom you speak, whelp?"

Lightning quick, the redhead retorted, "Do I  _care?"_

There was a murmur of outraged shock, cut off quickly by the one sitting at the apex of it all, beside the White Rabbit, lifting a hand lazily. "It's obvious you're dazed and disoriented after what looks to have been an ordeal, newcomer," he said, the voice from before, the very first one that had spoken to him after entering, evidently the ill-famed Superior. "In truth, you are the first human to make it into my presence in seventy-seven years, so perhaps we are hasty in assuming that you will speak right away. However…" His voice adopted a thread of steel. "You would do well to remember your manners, and hold your tongue unless saying something of import. We are none of us here well reputed for our easy tempers." There was laughter among the ranks, Axel scowling up at them. Once again, the old man cleared his throat, sounding more irritated with every minute wasted.

"Visitor to the throne," he persisted curtly, "you are required to state your name and business for the benefit of the register." He gestured to the floating quill, which waited patiently to perform its duty. Axel grimaced, massaged his forehead with one hand, shook his head and sighed, "Axel. My name – is Axel. And – " He threw up his hands. "I don't even know  _why_ I'm here, except that apparently the King, or Superior or  _someone,_ wants to ask me about the outside world. Okay?"

The old magician nodded firmly at this, the quill scribbling rapidly, said, "Thank you, that will do."

The Superior leaned onto the arm of his bright white throne, black-gloved fingers tapping idly. "Well, then, while we're on the subject," he said dryly, "please do just that, _Axel._ Tell us of the outside world, tell us how it has changed in the last seventy-seven years."

Axel blinked. "What, you serious?" He glanced at them all, took in the old man's frowning expression, then shrugged. "I don't know, seventy years?"

"Seventy-seven precisely," the White Rabbit interrupted crisply. Green eyes rolled.

"Fine. Whatever." He thought for a minute. "…I don't know. Cars are probably around a lot more… and TV, and computers, the internet." He lifted a shoulder uneasily. "But, uh, considering the extreme lack of electricity I've seen with you guys, I'm guessing those things aren't gonna be too valued…" He let loose a frustrated noise. "I don't  _know!_ It's too much to think about! What do you want to  _know?"_

One figure leaned forward in his chair, and the moment he spoke, Axel recognised Xaldin's mellow tones. "What is the state of the military these days? How would you rate it on a scale of one to ten?"

"For  _where,_ exactly?" the redhead asked testily.

"Every country."

Axel barked out a laugh. "Oh, come on, like I'd know that? Has  _anyone, ever_ been able to tell you that? Did the last person, seventy-seven years ago, have a fucking degree in fact-retention, or what?"

"Watch yourself," a female voice warned sweetly, making his stomach drop steeply. His gaze sought her out, the crazy chick that dropped the branch on him, hooded this time, and wondered suddenly if this was  _all_ of them, if they were  _all_ here – every one of the ones that had either tried to harm him or trap him, they all belonged here, to the Superior?

His eyes narrowed. "…You've been  _trying_ to trap me here, haven't you? It's not just about 'don't consume anything or you'll be stuck' – you make it your  _mission_ to stop me from leaving, don't you?"

"Who told you that?" Xemnas demanded sharply. "Someone actually warned you  _against_ consuming food and beverages?  _Who?"_

"That would no doubt be Roxas," drawled the one that could only be Marluxia, who had accused Roxas of killing too many people in Tulgey Wood. "He was trying to lead the human astray… I think…" He was quiet for a moment, before adding, "Actually, I'm not so sure about that. Roxas claimed him as his own."

"What do you mean,  _claimed_ him?" the Superior growled. His head swivelled towards the White Rabbit. "Merlin – what do you know of this?"

"Oh, it's true, I'm afraid," the old man confirmed, nodding regretfully. "I myself felt the magics of the bonding stir early yesterday morning."

There was a thud as the black-clad man smashed a fist into the arm of his throne.  _"Unacceptable!_ Why didn't you inform me, you stupid old rabbit?!"

Offended, the man replied,  _"Sir,_ I was not asked about the nature of the human's connection to any one of the creatures or spirits in the land, and it is not my privilege to merely blurt such things on my own!"

"Must I ask  _every_ time a human comes through? Your loyalties should be to  _me,"_  came the hissed response. Without waiting for a response, Xemnas threw a finger down in Axel's direction, demanding, "You, human! Where is Roxas now? Where is the foolish cat that refused a chair among us?"

Grimly, Axel replied, "I don't know. I left him behind a while ago."

"No doubt after he tried to drown you, yes?" Marluxia smugly supposed, earning a laugh from the lone female among them. When Axel hesitated, the rest of them, except for the Superior, Merlin, and the one that had thrown him through the portal, erupted into jeers and applause. "What a beautiful relationship they've shared," the pink-haired man sneered.

Xemnas, however, leaned forward, fingers lacing together, an intentness about him that dampened the boisterousness of the others until silence echoed among them. Obviously sending Axel a hard, searching look, though it was hidden by the hood, the man asked quietly, "If this is true, then you must see now that the cat cannot be trusted. He is a tricky creature, one of untold layers and motivations, and a brilliant manipulator. If he has indeed bound himself to you as the old wizard suggests, then tried to kill you anyway as he has done so often in the past, one can only assume that he is using you in an attempt to escape."

His heart beating fast at the notion of his own freedom equalling Roxas' as well, the redhead cautiously prompted, "Oh, yeah?"

"Join us, Axel," were the next words out of the Superior's mouth, intense and fiery in a somehow icy way. "Be one of us, and let the manipulation end. As part of the Organisation, you will be free to come and go as you please, in exchange only for your loyalty to me. Roxas will be incapable of harming you, and the bond between you will be severed – you will be useless to him." He straightened, swept an arm grandly at the gathered, inviting, "Assume a seat among us, and be one who rules the forest, instead of its unsteady victim. Share with us everything you know, and be accepted. Take your destiny with each hand!"

With the narrowed eyes of the White Rabbit upon him, Axel made a show of pondering, holding his chin between a thumb and forefinger. "You know…" he said slowly, Xemnas' eagerness evident even from the distance between them, "that could actually work…" He held up a finger.  _"If…_ you weren't such an obvious cocksucker." As the stunned silence fell anew, he continued,  _"If_ Roxas was trying to use me specifically to free himself,  _why_ would he then try to kill me? He would achieve  _nothing._ And, from the sounds of it, he hasn't done it much, if at all, previous to me."

"That's correct," Merlin interjected with an officious sniff. "The leftover spirit may bind itself to only one other life-form. Roxas, as one who has been killed but had his spirit preserved, initiated the binding magics to you, Axel, and none other."

The redhead faltered, his voice drifting up tentatively. "…Roxas was – killed?"

"Oh, yes, just as you will no doubt be, since you have so deeply insulted the Superior," the old man replied easily. "I don't even know if your spirit will end up being preserved. You'll probably just die and stay dead."

Xemnas slammed his fists down onto the white arms again.  _"Shut up! Enough!"_ He reached up, tore back his hood, revealing a dark-skinned, silver-haired man, fury dancing across his features. "If you won't join us, then you will  _die,_ you insolent  _nobody!"_ Drawing a breath, he bared his teeth, threw his head back, and cried,  _"Off with his head!"_

The effect was instantaneous. The room erupted, black figures leaping up onto their thrones and vanishing through light-eating portals. Merlin, remaining calmly in place, called down in the brief silence, "Axel, I believe that the agreement between yourself and Roxas has yet to be concluded, correct?" He smirked slightly, added, "Still got a kiss in stock?"

Axel jumped, startled by how quickly things had happened, mind fighting to register what the old man meant. Then, as the first of the vortexes burst into being at his side, he gasped in a sharp breath and bellowed,  _"Roxas!"_

"You old  _fool!"_ Xemnas screamed, making a grab for the White Rabbit. But by that time, the wizard had already nodded to himself in satisfaction, and vanished into a puff of blue smoke and sparks. Roxas was there an instant later, exploding out of nothingness and snatching Axel's hand, slamming a shoulder into the nearest Organisation member, sending him staggering, and dragging Axel directly into the still-open portal, straight into the darkness.

This time, there was no time to go mad. Roxas tore him right through it, the pair of them bursting back into the circus grounds, the blond's fingers clamping harder around Axel's palm as he urged,  _"Go,_ Axel!"

The redhead, needing no further prompting, matched his speed swiftly, the pair racing hand in hand across the dirt, plunging between the great many cages, whipping past Leon and Cloud's carriage. The men looked up in startled, electrified shock as the shouts and bellows from Xemnas' followers snarled into existence behind them, the entire company pouring through the vortex in chase. A second later, both had abandoned their cards, slamming into the bars, eyes wide, Cloud yelling in cracked tones,  _"Run!"_

Beside him, Leon sucked a massive breath, and let loose a roar of pure lion, awakening every prisoner within every cage in a flurry of screeches and howls. Cloud joined in, intensifying the din. In moments, every cage was rocking, as the many captives from over God only knew what impossible stretch of time threw themselves against the metal barriers of their traps and bellowed.

Roxas surged forward, tugging Axel to keep up as the man let out a frightened, breathless laugh at the commotion, the black-clad pursuers suffering under a sudden storm of food scraps, water jugs, and clumps of old straw and dirt.

Cloud's roar followed them as they pelted through into the sideshows, the many booths a blur on either side. As another seed of darkness blossomed sharply in their path, Roxas didn't even pause to dislodge the attacker, instead blasting through, smacking straight into him and keeping on going, Axel leaping over the man's flailing legs. As his hood fell back, the redhead recognised crazy eye-patch guy, the pulse of terror this gave him carrying him through the darkness, the pair of them leaping out into –  _"Ack, fuck!"_

Axel splashed knee-deep into the marshes, sloshing water wildly as he fought to keep upright, Roxas yelling, "Axel, come  _on!"_ and tugging at him. The blond's feet didn't even dip below as he ploughed onward, turning with frustration as Axel sank only deeper behind him, the redhead grunting and struggling for traction. Behind them, Xemnas' followers came splashing out into the water, crying out in surprise, but recovering quickly, joining Roxas' plane of reality and running up on top of the slush, none of them quite as humanly weighed down as Axel.

Snarling, Roxas was forced to pause, bent and plunged his arms into the freezing water, wrapping them around Axel's waist. Then he turned and started up again, towing the redhead as best as he could, half-carrying him.

They flashed through half the swamp, the Organisation members gaining rapidly, before, with a clatter and smash, Roxas was suddenly, completely illogically, instead dragging the redhead bouncing across the long banquet table covered in teapots. The pair cried out, limbs tangling, Roxas crashing briefly to his knees, Axel exclaiming with utter bewilderment, "The  _fuck?!"_

"It's falling apart," Roxas panted, hauling him back up, "everything's falling apart –  _just keep going!"_ They took off down the table, hearing the thuds of so many pairs of boots transferring from the swamp onto the tablecloth, kicking aside hot-plates and cups, jugs splitting apart, fluid flying.

Then, Roxas faltered, his step slowing, and he tripped, Axel snatching at him. "Roxas! What –?" He broke off, the pair of them managing only just to keep their balance, swinging in a tight circle with the momentum, but both maintaining eye contact with the pale, blue-eyed girl sitting in one of the chairs. The pencil in her hand, which had been going non-stop since Axel had left, paused on the page of her sketchpad. She stared at them.

Deep regret haunted Roxas' voice as he breathed,  _"Naminé."_ He shook his head, pain evident in his features. "I'm so  _sorry…"_

Axel, feeling a similar stabbing wrench, nevertheless started hustling the blond forward again, hearing the enemy approaching, not even daring to glance over his shoulder as he snapped, "Roxas, there's no time, please,  _please –_ she's already lost."

Stumbling backward over the many items covering the table, Axel's grip tightened around his upper arms as he called with anguish, "I'm sorry, Naminé!"

Throat choking up, he allowed Axel to get him moving, never seeing the girl's expression slowly change, a frown forming on her delicate features. Her lips parted, mouthing silently,  _Roxas…_ She heard the commotion of the pursuers, head twisting to gaze at them, before turning her attention sharply to her notepad.

"…Roxas…" Naminé sucked in a breath, leapt to her feet and yelled, with a cracking, disused voice,  _"Roxas, go!"_ She leaned hard over the table, scooping up the jar with the happy-face label, turning to meet the oncoming Organisation members. Shaking hands gripping it hard, she held her breath, heard Demyx shout a muffled warning from whichever coat he was hidden inside, and heaved it with all her might at the nearest hood-swathed head.

Axel heard a sharp, distant curse, a flurry of coughing, and then a loud, messy thump and shatter of crockery. Beside him, focused again but expression torn, Roxas said intensely, "It's coming; I can feel it –  _jump!"_ The two males leapt from the edge of the table – and slammed into a patch of toadstool-ridden forest, complete with giant flowers, their heads bobbing in an invisible wind.

Axel hissed,  _"Shit,_ not this place!"

"It's okay, it's  _breaking,"_ Roxas gasped at his side, hurrying him along, fingers tightening into his shirt as he again yelled,  _"Jump!"_

Axel demanded,  _"What?"_ and smashed a kneecap into the single white picket of a fence in broad daylight, howling viciously in his agony. Flames roared, smoke bellowed and belched into the sky, heat vomiting out to meet them as Roxas hauled Axel staggering over the fence, through the vegetable patch beside the cottage. They covered their faces as they rushed to the garden path, raced down it and away, heading into the woods.

At this point, their hands finally broke apart, heads lowering, and, completely free for the first time, they launched into an all-out sprint. Trees erupted on every side, branches whipping past, the air so light and clean-feeling, but they weren't safe yet – Axel could still hear Xemnas' lackeys in hot pursuit, crashing through the underbrush. They had given up trying to stay one step ahead of the fleeing duo, and were now hunting them down with determined fervour, shouting and calling to one another, closing in in a pincer movement.

From the shadows slithered Riku, and, right behind him, Riku. The silver-haired twins flashed Axel and Roxas identical smirks, nods of acknowledgement. "Almost there," the long-haired one said, with a toss of his head. The brothers sprang apart and plunged past them, screams erupting from the Organisation black-coats moments later.

Almost there. Almost back to the beginning. Everything was being reversed, the air almost vibrating around them. Axel shot sweat-stung glances sideways, seeking out Roxas through the trees, the blond disappearing and reappearing with each trunk that flashed between them. Chest clutching, the redhead lunged sideways, gripped his hand again, narrowly avoiding slamming face-first into a tree. Roxas sent him a bewildered look, but tugged him forward, the two of them racing once again side by side, the sounds of battle ringing out behind them. Axel thought he heard one of the Riku twins laughing wildly.

Their feet flew over the long grass, the redhead not even noticing as his soles were pierced, not noticing the raging heat under his skin or the rivers of perspiration leaking from his pores. His left arm pumped, while his right moved in synch with Roxas', the pair of them neck and neck, crimson and white blurs.

At last, as they vaulted over a moss-covered log, Axel realised with a stab of panicked elation that they had reached a very familiar place – he'd be surprised to ever forget what  _this_ particular clearing looked like. Just to prove that he was right, this was the end, this was  _it,_ Roxas stumbled to a halt.

Their slick hands released one another, each bending and grasping his knees, heaving needy breaths, Axel tilting his face up and closing his eyes at the pain in his chest. "Oh, my God," he choked, struggling to recover quickly. He threw a helpless look over to the blond, gasping, "What now?"

Narrow blue eyes cut up from the grass, the expression on Roxas' shining face hard and daunting. Axel's dramatic breaths skipped slightly, nails digging into his knees at the glare he was receiving. He swallowed, eyebrows drawing together, panting with an edge of timidity, "Roxas?"

"…Remember," the blond said tightly. "You still owe me payment."

Axel's jaw dropped, he staggered, demanded shrilly, "Did you not notice the people trying to  _kill_ me, Roxas, honey?"

Slowly, Roxas straightened, filled his lungs, glanced back to where the commotion grew steadily closer. "I know," he agreed quietly, so soft that Axel had to arch forward to hear him. When he looked back at the redhead, resolve was firm in his gaze. "Just – don't forget, okay?"

"We can do this later,  _later,"_ Axel said frantically, pushing up from his legs, twisting his hands in tight motions through the air.

"No. We can't," came the blunt response.

Roxas wrapped a hand around Axel's biceps, the redhead hissing at the crushing pressure. "What are you  _talking_ about?"

Roxas lifted a hand, extended his arm, and, quietly, a billow of darkness swirled into existence – one of the portals. Axel jerked in his grasp, wide-eyed, feet slipping in startled shock. "Wait – what? Roxas –" He turned to the blond, who gazed steadily back.

"I'm glad you liked the cat so much, Axel. The cat… both cats… liked you, too."

For a voiceless moment, Axel stared in consternation, confusion. The vortex spread its twining fingers through the air, like a living bruise trying to spread. "Ro –"

Before he could finish speaking the name, he was pushed into darkness. His feet found no purchase, his grabbing hands closing on nothing as he let out a strangled noise and tried to hold onto the blond. The green grass, the trees, the cold blue eyes – all were, in the next instant, swallowed up. Or – Axel was.

Again, for a while… he ceased to be. Only this time, there wasn't even the screaming terror of being alone and disembodied.

This time, there was, literally, nothing. Just like the first time.

\--

"Here, kitty-kitty."

Existence returned fuzzily, hazy at the edges. Sound drifted into being, slow and disconnected, a swell and ebb of familiarity that was randomly placed and perplexing. Touch was soon to follow, coldness seeping through every limb, and an odd, almost-painful scratching occurring on his chin, a constant sensation. Sense of smell arose, Axel's nose filled with the scent of earth, stale straw, a musty, animalistic musk. Bizarrely, stomach churning nauseously, there was something underlying it that made him think of food.

"Hey, cat, where'd you go?"

Axel's eyes cracked open, swivelling sightlessly, the world a blur of dark blobs of dull colour, and the scraping at his chin continued.

"Little kitten, where'd you – holy shit." There was motion nearby,  _close,_ new colour entering the grimness, some blue, some white and red, something blond that made Axel blink. "Jesus, are you okay?" the voice asked urgently, before scolding, "Stop that, cat, he's not a goddamn popsicle." A moment later, the sandpaper sensation vanished, along with a slight weight Axel hadn't realised was pressing into his chest. He coughed weakly, inhaled dirt, and groaned, eyes slipping shut again.

"Oh, hey, don't fall asleep, okay?" There was fear in the voice. Then,  _"God,_ look at the lump on your  _skull._ What the hell did you do, play Chicken with the lion cage?" Gentle hands touched him, green irises fluttering back into view, vision clearer this time, not necessarily to his advantage.

Axel moaned, "Oh, no, scary clown," and tried to clumsily push the figure away.

"Yeah, yeah, shut up," was the wearily annoyed voice. "I know I look like a freak, okay? But I'm trying to help you, so work with me here." The hands tightened, pulled him carefully out from under the darkness, which, the redhead realised slowly, was in fact the bottom of a peeling, weathered carriage.

As he was eased into a sitting position, he looked around dazedly, saw the tawny ruff of a lion's mane poking out from between a series of bars, and muttered, "…The circus…?"

"The circus," the scary clown sighed in confirmation. Grimacing, Axel went to lift a hand to his head, only to have his wrist grabbed out of the air, with an exclaimed, "Ah, no! You have this –  _gigantic_ lump on your forehead, don't touch it."

Spiked with sudden, sharp recognition, Axel blinked several times to clear his gaze, shook his head automatically and suffered for it, the clown hissing in pained sympathy as he winced.

When the redhead looked at him, really  _looked,_ he spent a few moments not speaking. The clown was kneeling beside him in the dirt, dressed in a baggy, patchy costume, but where all the clowns Axel remembered had been wearing curling wigs in a variety of colours, this one had blond spikes swept up at one side, looking a little dirty and messy, like they'd been crushed under a hat all day, but real. He was still wearing full makeup, a broad, unhappy scowl painted from one side of his face to the other, the rest of his skin coloured a bone white. However, beneath it all, he was… unmistakable. His eyes were bright, clear blue, artificially red brows pulled down in concern as he regarded Axel.

On top of all that, he was holding a cream-coloured, fluffy cat.

Axel stared. "The cat…"

The blond glanced down at the feline in his hands. "Oh, is he yours? He's been hanging around for a few days. I've fed him a couple times, but I didn't know he had an owner. Did you lose him?" He frowned, then brightened slightly in understanding. "Is that how you hurt yourself, looking for him?" He smiled. "He seems to know you, at least."

Beginning to tremble, Axel nodded jerkily, said, voice shaking slightly, "Yeah, h-he's mine."

Nose wrinkling, the blond lifted the cat up. "Well, I'm gonna miss him, he was good company. Does he have a name, though? I've just been calling him 'cat' all this time, I didn't want to confuse him in case he was just lost and not stray."

"…Roxas," the redhead said. The blond blinked, looked up, surprised.

"Yeah? Do I know you?"

Axel hitched in a breath, hands snaking out and gripping the sides of the blond's face, dragging him into a desperate kiss. He dived into the hot mouth, sucking on the inhabiting tongue, hands shifting around to grip the back of the clown's baggy shirt. The blond's eyes shot wide, small grunts of stunned objection being swallowed by Axel's insistence, before, almost against his will, he began tentatively responding. Blue gaze shifting from side to side in utter confusion, he suddenly noticed the cat sitting a foot away, watching them curiously. Blinking hard, Roxas gathered all his willpower and wrestled the redhead off him, the pair of them gasping as their lips separated, mouths buzzing.

Sense returning, realising he'd just had the breath kissed out of him by a perfect stranger, Roxas scrambled back a little, demanded, "What the hell? What, do you have a _thing_  for the sad clowns or something?"

Axel grinned a little madly, a little lop-sidedly, and said, "Just – paying my debt."

Shaking his head with a growl, the blond muttered, "I'm  _glad_ I'm quitting this place if it means I don't have to get molested by the patrons." Then, bewilderment strong, he blurted,  _"But no one molests the clowns!_ We're all too creepy looking! What the  _hell,_ man?"

"Roxas – you're quitting the circus?" Axel was suddenly alert, even as the blond tilted his head uncomprehendingly.

" _Have_ we met? How do you know my name?"

For a long minute, Axel had no answer, though his mind raced with images and memories. Eventually, he said, "…I guess – you just made an impression on me."

Roxas eyed him for a moment, then, reluctantly, nodded. "I understand that, I guess… I mean, I definitely noticed you earlier, when you were wandering around the sideshow, you just, you caught my eye, and – uh…" He ground to a halt, obviously deciding he'd said too much. If he blushed, it was covered up by the white makeup, Axel grinning widely.

Roxas shook his head. "Look, you shouldn't be here," he said, trying to hide his embarrassment. "If Xemnas catches you here this late, heads will roll."

"In that case, I'll leave," the redhead said easily. "I'll take my cat and go – as long as no one tries to stop me."

Snorting, Roxas rose to his feet. "No one will, we all understand how weird this place is." With a breath, he glanced around. "It surprises me that anyone comes here at all." He reached a hand down, which Axel grasped, the two of them working from either end to lever him to his feet, the redhead swooping in and planting a kiss on his jaw as he came upright. Roxas took a shivery breath, shoved him away a little, frowning. He looked down at the white cat, bent and gently picked it up, scratching its fluffy chin. "I guess this is goodbye," he said softly to it. "So, what's it's name, anyway?"

"…Actually, it's new," Axel revealed cautiously. "I haven't had it long… I haven't named it yet."

Indignantly, the blond echoed, "You haven't  _named_ it, yet?"

Grinning crookedly, he replied, "Well, I  _was_ planning to call him Roxas, but then I found that some  _other_ cute blond thing had already grabbed it." He hesitated, reached for the cat and took it carefully, stroking between its ears. "This little guy – he's elusive," the redhead murmured. "You should – come home with us, if he likes you so much. Just so he doesn't start pining for you or anything."

Roxas smirked, and Axel just about saw his ears twitch, his tail lash lazily. "Right. Wouldn't want the cat to  _pine."_

"You could help come up with a name," Axel tempted. "And I need someone to hold him while I go into the grocery store for milk and tuna, anyway."

The blond wavered uncertainly. "…I don't even know  _your_  name."

Leaning forward, he placed another kiss against his face, before, after a moment's pause, kissing his mouth again, softly this time, just for a moment, the blond strangely unresisting. "My name is Axel," he reminded huskily, as he drew back, their noses an inch apart. "And I think I had a dream about you."

Round eyes inspected green. "…Really?" Roxas shuddered slightly as the redhead slowly nodded. "Cheesy pick-up line," he said faintly. "But what the hell. I just quit my shitty job as a scary clown. I might as well go to some stranger's house and feed his cat, just to really… round things out." He sighed. "I have to change first, though, and my boss – ex-boss – might cause you trouble if he sees you lurking around." The corners of his mouth lifted. "…But don't worry. I'll save you if he does."

"In exchange for a kiss," Axel agreed quietly. Roxas shook his head.

"No, the save is obligatory, this time. But – I'll keep that idea in mind." Smiling faintly, he set off towards the pavilion to take off his makeup for the last time, while Axel leaned against the lion cage, holding his small, warm cat close.

Feeling the breeze against his dry, clean clothes, his flawless skin aside from the lump marring his head, Axel drew a breath, closed his eyes, and resolved himself to waiting. He glanced down at the feline, muttering, "One within the King's reach, one to guard the entrance… How about I call you… Sora?"

The cat purred against him, and together, they let the minutes trickle past. It didn't matter how long Roxas took, as long as he returned.

This time, Axel was determined to not leave without the blond, no matter who came after him.

 


End file.
